Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested... (on being Green)

[Whisp]

Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the older woman that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment.

The woman apologized and explained, "We didn't have this green thing back in my earlier days."

The clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations." She was right -- our generation didn't have the green thing in its day.

Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were re cycled. But we didn't have the green thing back in our day.

===

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/quirks-quarks-blog/2011/11/old-folks-perspective-on-the-environment.html

[HappyMe]

1. Very well said!

[Spider Jerusalem]

2. And 50 years ago there were half as many people on the planet.

[elleng]

3. 'did not care enough' is both rude and uninformed.

[freshwest]

48. Arrogant to the point of bigotry, really. Although no one has to *teach* me on it. I'm a green nazi.

But I don't preach it.

The irony here is that the glass bottles, etc. of my youth were discarded in the eighties when the criticizing person in the article most likely grew up. She probably is unfamiliar with the arts of mending clothes and shoes, repairing or doing without.

Like the song said, 'But I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now.'
Nothing to worry about, we'll all get there, as soon as we can.

[antigone382]

58. But no one actually said this. It's a cutesy anecdote.

Most of the truly environmentally conscious people that I know from my generation have great respect for older and less energy intensive ways of doing things, and actively seek to learn from our elders. There is of course frustration that so many opportunities were missed by the preceding generation, but that isn't really the fault of the average-baby-boomer-joe; it is the fault of the political and economic leaders who delayed action until it was more or less too late.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

4. Touche! eom

[loli phabay]

5. seems the younger generation like their time and effort

Saving devices. Wanna bet the young cashier has a bigger footprint than the elder she felt she had to berate. Until people go live in the good old times themselves they dont have the right to complain about others.

[Skidmore]

12. Let's talk about the number of disposable electronics consumed

in the form of cell phones, tablets, cables, etc. Everyone dropping their current toy for the next one.

The other two things that drive me nuts are disposable diapers and stick pens. I washed cloth diapers for my two and only used disposables on trips, and disposables were a new invention back then. Remember those plastic pants you put over the cloth diaper and washed and washed until they would spring a leak?

Stick pens are an abomination. Period. Especially those damned pens pushed for advertising a company. They are everywhere. No way to recycle them that I'm aware of. Loathe them.

[northoftheborder]

17. I could give up ballpoint pens for real ink pens, but not plastic diapers. I too washed many

cloth diapers, and without a dryer; but the disposable diapers are so much gentler for the baby's skin, and so much more sanitary for the baby and family.

[Skidmore]

19. I sure would have loved to have a dryer

when my kids were little. Dryers were a fairly new invention and really expensive. I washed diapers in boiling water and hung them to dry, regardless of the weather. In the winter, they froze on the line and in the summer sun they would dry quickly. Mothers used to pass diaper sets on to their sisters and friends with new babies. They were well used and sturdy. And I'll wager those diapers have long since disintegrated by now though. Now those diapers they sell now will still be intact in a landfill a millennia from now.

[treestar]

68. They didn't invent it though

They were born into it, while an older generation invented it all.

Electronics could be recycled too, if we really wanted to do that. They are used far longer than a set of disposable diapers.

[frazzled]

6. My mother and mother-in-law were children of the Depression ...

My mother always turned out the lights as she was leaving a room (still does), kept the furnace at the lowest possible setting that would keep us warm, and only let us use a few inches of water our baths (you should save water! she would tell us). And heaven forfend if you should stand in front of the refrigerator with the door open: you're wasting electricity! she would scold us.

My mother-in-law used to wash and re-use the plastic bags from the store that vegetables come in ... and use them again! Every little thing was saved and re-used, including pieces of aluminum foil.

I think my generation (I was born in 1950) rebelled against these endless scrimpings and savings of our mothers. As soon as I got away from home I used to fill the tub up with hot water to my neck. Later, as my kids got inculcated into the "green" movement at school, I began to change again: recycling everything, trying to use less electricity, etc.

[northoftheborder]

18. same here: mother and inlaws so frugal, recycling and saving everything. They grew up in the

dust bowl drought, and the depression, but never changed their habits, even with much improved financial situations. After my mother passed away, I found strips of torn up old sheets, most rolled into balls, that she used as twine to tie up things, packages, etc.. I have a bowl of white balls on my shelf to remind me of her and her frugal ways!

[noamnety]

42. I do that with the plastic veggie bags.

I get annoyed when the husband rips a hole in the side of the bags, so I am trying to do a better job of dumping the fruit in the fruit bin loose so I can keep the bag.

[athena]

75. You can buy reusable veggie bags.

I get them at reuseit.com. I have these:
http://www.reuseit.com/store/reuseit-produce-snack-organic-cotton-p-747.html?slave_id=3404
and these:
http://www.reuseit.com/store/ecobags%C2%AE-recycled-cotton-tote-natural-p-665.html

The latter, I've used for many years. I wash them every now and then, and they last forever! (I don't think I've ever had to throw away a reusable bag.)

[noamnety]

77. I actually made some

but then they got nasty in a veggie bin and I threw them out. What I really want the plastic bags for in the end isn't for more veggies so much as for bread and peanut butter bags. I buy bread at a local bakery sometimes and it comes in a paper bag so steam when it cools doesn't make it soggy. But after it cools I want plastic bags for it.

And I wash and reuse the peanut butter knives in my classroom. I put them in the empty peanut butter jar to get them home, but I put that in a plastic bag because if I brake hard, 100 plastic knives covered with peanut butter and jelly toppling over in my car is a mess to clean up. (First world problems, I know!)

[yellowcanine]

7. Bottle deposits were a good way to pick up a little pocket money when I was a kid.

At 2 cents a bottle a 6 pack was 12 cents which was two cents more than my weekly allowance in 1957. And all I had to do was sneak off the playground at recess and walk a block to the neighborhood grocery store.

[The Magistrate]

8. Indeed, Sir

We took them up to the filling station on the corner, cashed them in and got a bottle of pop all to ourselves in the summer-time.

[yellowcanine]

14. Cokes (6.5 oz) were a nickel from the machine in the break room where my mom worked.

No deposit - you drank it there and put the empty bottle in a crate next to the machine. Most of the candy bars were a nickel also.

[The Magistrate]

15. Nickel It Was, Sir

The machine was a big ice-chest, with the bottles hung from the bulge under the cap on rails, in the iced water. Putting in the money released a lug that let you pull one free at a corner.

[yellowcanine]

16. Saw those some places but this one was an upright machine.

I don't remember exactly how it worked. Believe it was something like this 10 cent machine. I do remember the lever on front.

[Whisp]

9. of all the things that annoy me on this topic the most, it is plastic bottles of water

Especially where your tap water is fine and safe.

I just cringe when I go to the supermarket and see this skids and skids of Harm.

[Scootaloo]

22. Augh! yes, I've tried to explain this to my co-workers

Our water on the island is actually fucking delicious, has a nice mineral crispness to it. But every day, the recycle bin is stuffed with arrowhead bottles (and arrowhead water tastes like water that's been sitting in a tire for a week!)

I consider bottled water to be a sign of our country's numbing decadence. "I'm so affluent I can spend money on free stuff and generate waste from it!"

[No Vested Interest]

10. This story has been around

as an email for several years.

[Whisp]

11. I haven't seen it before. n/t

[bluestate10]

13. The supermarket that I visit has a whole section set aside for returns of cans. plastic bottles,

glass bottles and plastic bags. It also supports reusable bags for grocery shopping, making inexpensive ones available to consumers.

[kestrel91316]

20. Snotty, ignorant clerk never heard this said by the folks who survived the Depression:

Use it up, wear it out, make do, or do without.

[closeupready]

23. Oh gawd - you made me feel so old

Remember this:

[blackspade]

60. Argh! The pain!

Wow, that brings back memories.

[toddwv]

21. Please...

Most older people didn't live during the Great Depression.

Sure things were different in the 50s and 60s. Then the Boomers came to power and everything went disposable.

While the clerk was out of bounds saying that to a customer, it's hard to deny that the Boomer generation, politically, has been an abysmal failure on multiple levels. Reagan's anti-green crusade being one of them and then the positively BRILLIANT move of putting oil men in control of the White House.

Now we have an anti-EPA faction and the continuing addiction to oil.

Is it fair to lump all older people and Boomers into the same crowd? No, but to ignore the legacy of decades of "land-fill" consumption is just another way to deny the problem.

[athena]

24. I have a hard time believing this story.

I think someone made it up to make environmentalists look bad.

When I'm checking out at the store, with my own bags, I have to work hard to prevent the cashier from automatically giving me a plastic bag. Even after telling them that I don't need a bag, I have to watch closely and stop them just as they're reaching for the plastic bag. I've never seen a cashier suggest to anyone that they should bring their own bag; on the contrary, they offer to double-bag everything for people who don't have their own bags. I don't think they want people to bring their own bags; they never seem quite sure whether they should fill my bags for me or let me fill them.

It's one thing to criticize a group for something they have actually done. It's really unfair to criticize them for something they haven't done.

[Lightbulb_on]

25. Like it is so hard to believe that someone is smug and holier than thou about their "greenness?"

Really?

[Whisp]

26. I don't think it's a conversation between real people.

It's just made up to make a point.

I have heard a lot of 'look what mess you guys will leave us kids and that sure is true,

but granny's story is true too.

I can't really find anyone to be angry at. Everyone is at fault in their own ways. But the biggest fault lies with us being brainwashed into thinking we need things we don't by corporations whose only need is money.

[athena]

28. As an environmentalist ...

I have been using reusable bags for more than a decade, but I have never thought of it as cleaning up a mess created by earlier generations. On the contrary, I am well aware that my generation is worse than previous ones. My actions are a small attempt to reduce my own footprint. I certainly don't do enough, but that doesn't mean I have to do nothing.

Many environmentalists use reusable diapers and pads, as well as reusable bags. I, personally, have decided not to have children, in part to preserve the environment. I use fountain pens, and I am lucky enough to have a grocery store near me that sells milk in glass bottles, which I return to the store. I have great respect for earlier generations, and I don't think I am the only environmentalist who feels this way. On the contrary, I am probably typical. That's why I think this story is so unfair.

[slampoet]

27. More Old BS to make the Polystyrene Generation feel good about poisoning their children,

This is a propaganda email that has been around for nearly a decade.

It also refers to practices that the older generation stopped doing when they were children. The major bottlers stopped individual washing of bottles nearly 50 years ago.

[SoCalDem]

29. Our "trash can" was a very small waste bin

The lid had a recessed handle and the whole thing was under the sidewalk.. The lid was flush with the sidewalk

It was the size of a bathroom waste basket..

Things were not packaged back then. Cans were recycled.. There was little or no frozen food.. We cooked from scratch, and ate the leftovers.

Houses now have Giganto trash cans and throw so much stuff away..

People had stuff repaired when it broke, and handed down things they no longer wanted. We did not throw out much.

When we did drink sodas, they came in glass bottles we returned for deposit $.. We used waxed paper and when we used foil, we carefully removed it, washed it & re-used it..

We even saved our Xmas tinsel

[JI7]

30. Wasn't this posted here some time back ? seems like one of those emails that get

sent around and story being most likely fake.

[Whisp]

31. I doubt these are actual two people in real life having this conversation.

but whether it's a 'real' conversation or not doesn't really matter, does it?

[athena]

71. It matters a great deal.

Imagine I make up a story about a conversation you had in which you were obnoxious, arrogant, and clueless. When you object that the conversation never took place, I claim it doesn't matter that it never took place and that I was simply trying to illustrate a point. Would you be happy with that?

The problem with this story is that it paints environmentalists as obnoxious, arrogant, and clueless, when, in reality, true environmentalists are none of those things.

The other problem, which is worse, is that the elderly woman in the story is justifying her refusal to do a small thing to help the environment. The whole anecdote is designed to make people feel better about not reusing things. People will read this and feel good about using plastic bags, but that does not do anything to reduce the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

[Whisp]

74. this story isn't about a particular old lady or a particular 'rude'/whatever clerk

It's not about people, it's about ideas.


The whole anecdote is designed to make people feel better about not reusing things.

I don't see it that way at all.

[slampoet]

44. This is completely fake and written by a young person.

It shows no first hand knowledge at all.


I used a refillable `1930's Fountain pen from 1998-2000 the spilled ink costs in shirts, pants, hankies, blotter paper, books, reprints of ruined copies, hand soap, liquid paper, and even a pair of shoes was eventually too much for me.

I switched to a good uniball and have used a lot less resources with my so called disposable pen.

[athena]

73. It sounds like you had a bad pen.

I've been using fountain pens for years and have not once had ink spill on my clothes. I use modern Pelikan pens like the Souveran. You do have to be careful not to shake the pen, though; if you do, the ink will splash inside the cap and will be all over your hands when you remove the cap.

With a little bit of care, a good fountain pen can be quite practical, and it will last many years. Check out www.fountainpennetwork.com for more information (although I should warn you that it's addictive).

[slampoet]

79. THen i had seven bad pens in a row.

I am not talking about Cartridge fountain pens, nor snorkels.

Also If you were really into these pens you would know that it takes forever to get them serviced in the USA, around the year 2000 there were only three places and all required you to send it mail order and wait for months.

[athena]

80. Wow. You just called me a liar.

"If I were really into these pens?"

Wow. Just wow. That was totally uncalled for.

I do, as a matter of fact, know that it takes a long time to get a fountain pen serviced. When you have more than a couple of good pens, waiting several months to get a special pen fixed by a professional is no big deal.

Furthermore, the pens that need the piston fixed are usually older pens, or those you get on eBay. None of my modern Pelikans ever needed any work on their pistons. Incidentally, if you were as knowledgeable about pens as you claim, you would know that the Souveran line of Pelikans all have pistons.

In any case, I only posted to be helpful. By effectively calling me a liar, you revealed much more about yourself than about anyone else.

[progressoid]

32. Oh yeah? We walked 15 miles up hill to school every day.

And 26 miles up hill home at the end of the day.

[abelenkpe]

34. I remember way back when

telephones had cords and no one got run over texting LOL to their friend two feet away.

[Whisp]

35. LOL!

[Grammy23]

51. In the snow.....

[progressoid]

63. If you were lucky.

[Dont call me Shirley]

33. Also we bought lots of locally grown foods.

[abelenkpe]

37. Love the farmers market on the weekend! nt

[abelenkpe]

36. This is an ugly BS story

designed to make people outraged at one another. The elderly get to wag their finger at the young. And people get the chance to call those concerned about the environment uppity snots. Why does anyone fall for this stuff?

(edited to add: not that I'm blaming the op....it's the media that shouldn't be perpetuating division)

[Whisp]

39. that's what I don't quite like either.

I think both sides have their good points but they are both missing out a very important ingredient: the corporations that make this mostly useless junk and the media who brainwashed us to buy this mostly useless junk.

[abelenkpe]

46. So true! nt

[classof56]

38. Well, call me a cranky over-70 grannie,

but if a clerk had said that to me, she'd have one less customer to deal with, plastic bag or not.

For some reason, I never thought of myself as a destroyer of future generations when I was making my way through the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, et al. Used to rise up against the machine that kept me in the "Help wanted women" trap, not to mention unequal pay, being told I couldn't take physics in HS because I was "a girl", hating myself 'cause I hadn't done the aisle walk thing by the time I was 20. When I did wed and had two children, it never occurred to me to continue down the path of destruction I'd been on. I was very active in the environmental movement, took the ZPG pledge, recycled like crazy and told my daughters they could be anything they wanted. Even a grocery clerk if they wished, but they knew their manners and would never have said anything like that to anyone, much less an "older woman" they knew enough to respect.

Now that I think about it, that young clerk not only would have lost a customer, she'd have gotten an earful on my way out the store to which I would never have returned.

Okay, rant over. This is what hitting 74 after years of repression does to ya. Now, gotta go make sure those kids get off my lawn!

[DakotaLady]

54. Class of 54

Like a lot what you wrote.

Myself I would have been so taken aback I probably wouldn't have said a thing to this clerk.

[classof56]

78. Thanks, DakotaLady. I know what you mean!

Guess I'm getting more brazen and mouthy these days--trying to put the Doormat Mode behind me. Mostly I'm appalled at the lack of courtesy and compassion on the part of my fellow human beings, no matter their age, and feel the need to speak up. Might not make a difference, but I'm compelled to try.

Blessings and a belated welcome to DU!

[Raine]

40. "did not care enough??" WTF! People didn't know, my grandparents had an incinerator they sure the

hell wouldn't have used it if they thought it was harming anything but the tract housing development was the one that put it in. As soon as there were concerns the city came and removed all of them, this was in the 1950s. What a snotty self-righteous little brat!

[rhett o rick]

41. When I was growing up a long time ago, we had a very small carbon footprint.

One car, central oil burner, radiant heat. No electronic gadgets. Few material possessions. Had a vegetable garden and compost bin.
Canned fruit. Those were good times.

[johnd83]

47. "Small carbon footprint?"

What about overall efficiency? Cars are way more fuel efficient, create less carbon monoxide which is way worse for global warming, etc. Gadgets don't use that much power. The problem for the environment is largely due to population growth rather than individual usage. I guess the exception is A/C but that is an entirely different can of worms.

[rhett o rick]

49. Cars and gadgets take a lot of resources to make. nm

[johnd83]

52. Cars last much longer than they used to. My car is 15 years old and going strong.

[Codeine]

43. If one of my cashiers had said that

she'd be written up and put on probation.

Not that I believe anything even remotely like this actually happened, but. . .

[amborin]

45. back then, many lived w/ a smaller energy & resource depletion footprint, so not entirely true...eom

[whistler162]

50. Plus we had those weird things called...

paper bag, instead of plastic.

[Cha]

53. Good Point, thanks Whisp! I miss bottles! nm

[doc03]

55. You are exactly right we returned milk bottles, soda bottles,

beer bottles, used a refillable Zippo lighter, got sliced lunch meat and cheese wrapped in a sheet of paper instead of individually wrapped in plastic, had our tires re-treaded, used wood instead of plastic to make TV cabinets and such, air dried the clothes on the line, washed our car in the driveway and used 1/10 the water of an automatic car wash, we drank our water from a faucet instead paying $1.50 for 16 ounces of water in a plastic bottle, we cut grass with a push mower not a 25 hp riding tractor, we shoveled our snow instead of burning a gallon of gas in a snow blower, we grew and canned our own vegetables and fruit, ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Oh on edit we didn't have to go to a gym to get our exercise either.

[1StrongBlackMan]

56. Why, Oh why ...

do you hate the plastic industry so much?

{Yes, I'm being sarcastic}

I remember, in my youth, going around the neighborhood ... all day ... collecting bottles. The couple of dollars I got was half the money in the world.

[doc03]

59. This is terrible but we used to go behind the local store and

bring the already paid for bottles back in the store and get paid again.

[1StrongBlackMan]

65. Shhh ...

That was a trick I learned. I continued to turn the bottles over time and again ... until the bigger boys learned my trick and chased me off.

[Honeycombe8]

57. Good point. nt

[Snarkoleptic]

61. Refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle.

Refuse plastic bags (preferably use your own reusable bags) - store clerks often reflexively bag single/few items that can go without a bag.
Reduce the amount of plastic you take home.
Reuse plastic containers and bags - I use plastic jars/bottles as planters and recycle when repotting.
Recycle - should be called downcycle as plastics are made into lower grade materials when recycled, so you won't likely see a 2L plastic soda bottle return as another 2L plastic soda bottle.

[spanone]

62. as a kid i always collected bottles...up to a nickel if you returned it to a store...

[lunatica]

64. My generation had cloth diapers and glass soda containers and milk bottles

Pampers are a blight. It shouldn't be that hard to invent recyclable diapers, and I bet it could be done right now.

[LanternWaste]

66. I don't think that our desire for convenience and indulgences at the cost of...

I don't think that our desire for convenience and indulgences at the cost of the collective good is age dependent in any way. I'll often hear a younger/older person criticize the actions (or inaction) of another that are detrimental to the environment, but then, and even more quickly, berate an act of legislation that does in fact, look out for the collective good with the over-leveraged sobriquet of "authoritarian" or "statist".

I think we simply overlook many obvious positive examples of what has been done by those before us (and of those who will come after us), and concentrate merely on the negative aspects to better allow ourselves a sense of demographic righteousness. It's bad form and too obvious to pat ourselves on the back, so we rationalize it by lowering others-- the end result is the same, but we can more easily justify it that way.

[treestar]

67. But then we went for the convenient plastic

Same generation. Hardly anyone objected.

[1-Old-Man]

70. Except the makers of "waxed-paper", a material you seldom saw strewn along the side of the highway.

[GoCubsGo]

69. In my town...

It's mostly the older people that bring our own bags. Several years ago, I brought my own bags to the grocery store. The 20-something cashier asked me, "Is that how they do it up North?" I just shrugged and said, "I have no idea." (She also thought the head of lettuce I was buying was called "Rogaine" lettuce, but that's another story.) We got an Aldi a few years ago. The fact that one has to bring their own bags still flummoxes people, young and old.

[WinkyDink]

72. This. Never. Happened. It's called "a set-up to the punchline."

Last edited Wed Nov 21, 2012, 12:51 PM - Edit history (1)

[Jasana]

76. I did my part to be green...

by not having any children. It's hard for I am the last in my line and have nobody to leave the family photos and stories to. I still don't know what I am going to do with these things.

During the 1970s it was hard because I had to fight my grandparents (WWII generation whom I lived with) to pass a bottle bill in Massachusetts. They said it would be too much work. Thankfully it passed even though I was not old enough to vote then.

I still have arguments with my grandmother (now 86) that the plastic bags are bad and she uses them consistently when I have green bags here for her to use. She says, at her age, the green bags are simply too hard to use. What am I to say to that? I'm not 86. I have no idea what it's like for her shop.