This is probably going to seem a little bit odd after my earlier post, but ah well, these things happen. My brain just goes off in its own little directions sometimes and I have to just follow it. Its first little tangent happened because of the amount of Christmas trees I saw waiting to be disposed of today.
Now, I get that plastic trees are cumbersome, particularly in London where space for storing the bloody things is at all all-time premium, and they never look quite as good as the real ones, and there's the last of the pine smell, but they're a tree. Unlike the average house plant they survive more than a month in the average person's home, but as soon as Christmas is over people break up with their tree and cast it into the garden to be taken by nature or the bin man. And they do this year after year.
I don't know what exactly it is that bothers me about it; I can't put my finger on it. It's not just the fact that when it's thrown away, the tree is still technically alive, or that people don't bother to compost it or anything, and then a year later they just get a whole new tree, because the whole thing kind of bothers me. My parents managed to make Christmas this year awesome. My presents were all practical, I got clothes and notebooks and other funky things; even our Christmas crackers had good stuff in them. I have a whole set of Christmas cookie cutters including an angel that looks like Yoda, but most of the stuff that comes out of them is disposable nonsense. I'm glad that Sainsbury's allowed you to recycle cards and wrapping paper, but the whole thing just feels like a rubbish factory as soon as it's over...
Which brings me to the bit where I'll be mentioning politics...
This all came from my walk this morning whilst I was getting my graduation photographs from the Post Office. When I got back I realised that I needed to pick up a couple of things from the little Sainsbury's on the corner. Now, whenever that happens I always end up seeing things I want that I didn't go in for, like Pink Lemonade and Brita filters.
When I got to the tills the assistant asked me, as they do these days, do you need a bag?
Ask a normal person, you get a normal answer. This is my proof that I'm not normal. The assistant asked me that and rather than answering like a normal person I thought about an article I read the other day about how many people are stealing plastic bags, instead of just paying the 5p charge. The point of it is not actually making money for charities by charging everyone 5p for something that they used to get for free and then throw away.
I was carrying my handbag and a large envelope containing my graduation photos, so did I need a bag? I could have had one, but I didn't need one. I got everything except the Brita filters into my bag and carried the filters. Before the charge, I, like others, would have just taken a bag without really thinking about it and then used it for rubbish or to put my lunch in before throwing it away. When I ended up with a large quantity I took a bunch to the recycling and that was that. So instead of moaning about the charge, or stealing something that costs less than a Freddo used to, what we need to do is just think 'Do I 'Need' this, or am I just being a bit lazy?
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