02 January 2009

BYOB plus a WOTD

No, that's not Bring Your Own Bottle, but Bring Your Own Bag. Particularly if you plan on buying your liquor in the Canadian province of Ontario. It seems the tree-huggers have convinced the authorities there that the plastic bag is destroying the planet.

I'm no hardcore tree-hugger but those bags can be an eyesore. Locally, the newest Wal-Mart in these parts was plunked down on top of large, wooded hill. If we get some high winds then the trees on that hill become decorated with plastic Wal-Mart bags. In fact, there's so many you wonder just where did all of those empty bags come from. Do Wal-Mart customers just dump their purchases in the trunk and throw the bags on the ground? That doesn't seem very convenient for getting your stuff from the car to the house. So, it's a mystery to me.

But however they end up in the trees it can be a sore sight, particularly in winter when most branches are bare. I will give Wal-Mart credit for doing something about it. When it gets particularly bad they hire a crew to fan out on the hillside and clean up the mess.

Which brings another question to my mind. How do they get those bags out of some of the really tall beech and pin oak trees that are scattered about that hillside? Oh, you ask how I know those are beech and pin oaks? That's easy as those two species are marcescent and stick out, especially in winter.

2 comments:

Fish-2 said...

Those plastic bags are handy. It's much easier to carry a load of groceries into the house with those than with paper bags, but they do seem to accumulate. Fortunately there are several thrift stores around this area that love to get them. When I get a garbage bag full I drop it at one of those stores.

Anonymous said...

Yes, they are indeed handy, Fish. Too handy in some cases. I have, at times, overloaded myself with those bags carrying them from the car trunk to the back door. If Mrs GunTrash charges on in first to empty her peanut-sized bladder and forgets to latch the storm door open, I'm stuck and screw around getting my fingers untangled from the handles so I can open the door.

I don't think we had that problem with paper bags. But, then again, if that's my biggest problem in life then I don't have any problems. Which, most of the time, is true.