I was in a knockoff version of a major coffee chain recently and witnessed something I had seen and forgotten several times before. An employee reached into a giant plastic bin and pulled out a single danish, wrapped in plastic. He unwrapped it, placed it in the toaster oven for warming, removed it, and then placed it in a paper bag, which likely is coated in something or other, and handed it to the customer. Nowhere in the conversation did the customer ask for this to be put in a second bag.
Why is this standard practice? This was not the only location where I saw this happen, so it can’t be dismissed as a fluke or pinned on any one employee.
There’s so much talk about individual responsibility — refusing straws, recycling every last scrap of paper, etc. — that what can get lost in the mix is the need for businesses, especially the larger ones, to take true responsibility. It’s fine for a corporation to boast about their next “green” move, but they might want to do a closer investigation of all the other daily practices that are wasteful.
A certain major chain drugstore has been notorious for its excessively long receipts, even now, in an age when it’s common for receipts to be emailed or texted. Coupons do not need to be printed; they can be scanned off a phone. How is it that the locally-owned neighborhood coffee shop can handle digital receipts, but a corporation with budget won’t do this? It’s hard for me to gather up enthusiasm for the company’s environmental sustainability claims when they unapologetically waste resources at every transaction.
Once you start to notice this kind of thing, it’s hard to stop seeing it. Grocery stores sell cucumbers individually-wrapped in plastic. A cafe in Hartford has been selling pears, individually-wrapped in plastic and then placed in a paper bag. If you’re buying a reasonable amount of produce from local farms, the plastic wrap is not necessary.
This goes beyond greenwashing. Can you call yourself pro-community if maintaining business practices that hurt the community? Those register receipts are not recyclable. Plastic wrap, without taking an extra step, is also not recyclable. This means these items are going to the incinerator. If you can’t care about the planet, at least care about your neighbors’ lungs.
We already have an automated society in many respects, even when machines have not literally replaced people. A barista, for instance, performs in a very specific way because that is what training dictates, even if common sense would indicate otherwise. In lieu of phony claims about environmentalism and community, I would rather see genuine thoughtfulness in practice.