To some degree, here in the Mid-Atlantic area of the US anyway, this is mostly doable now.
Taking yer own bags to the grocery is moderately common amongst folks who care. Some grocers actually will give you an 'atta-boy' discount for doing so. This discount is way above and beyond the cost savings to them of not providing the bags. It may actually be as high as 1% of the bill. This small but real trend kinda shocks me. Milk in *real* bottles, and even *real* milk is available if you know where to look. Personally, I don't do milk very much, I kinda buy into the 'homosapiens digestive system hasn't evolved to process dairy yet' argument. I do like whole milk on cereal though, and I love cooking with butter. :) The few grocers I know who sell *real* dry goods by weight will use the little paper bags if you ask. They usually let you bring your own containers. This is all particularly true in Pennsylvania, where there is a very real 'Buy Fresh, Buy Local' movement that is top-down supported. Keith Addison wrote: >> For the smaller sandwich/storage ones if you get the resealable ones >> you can wash and re-use them for quite a while. Stick them to the >> fridge when they're wet and when they fall off they're dry and ready >> to be used again. > > You haven't seen our kitchen floor. You must be a city slicker. > > Storage bags are okay, and useful (ziplock), it's the shopping bags > that cause the problems. > > Don't plastic bags come from oil wells? > > When I was a kid the stores had the dry-goods stuff (beans, grains > and so on) in wooden bins and barrels, they scooped it out onto > scales on the counter and then tipped it into a paper bag for you. > Greens and fruit were also in paper bags, or wooden boxes or hessian > sacks. Milk was in returnable bottles, bread was wrapped in tissue in > a brown paper bag, can't remember how the meat got packed but the > butcher cut it for you while you waited (greaseproof paper?), same at > the fishmonger. > > I guess we'll have all that again, if the local food movement has its > way. Just in case you thought I was being nostalgic, not at all, > looking to the future. :-) > > Best > > Keith >>SNIP _______________________________________________ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
