As my mum wrestles her way out of the supermarket check out, she tells me ‘it shouldn’t be this difficult to go green.’ and it is true.
At the supermarket, we take out our own produce bags for fruits but are promptly told off by the staff. We must use their plastic bags so they can identify the fruits being from the supermarket and we won’t walk off without paying for them. So the next grocery run, we go without our own bags, and place the fruits directly into the supermarket basket.
At the checkout it becomes a race. Card in hand, our own shopping bags in hand, my mum is going in overdrive. Quickly she tells the cashier she has her own bags before swift hands open new bags in autopilot. Then, she flashes her card to pay before fumbling to keep the card and transferring each fruit into her shopping bag so not to hold up the queue. It is a race against time. Sometimes the fruits ends up on the floor in all that haste.
At the food centre, it is another issue. We are one of those families who can’t stand using disposable plates and cutlery, especially for dining in. Sometimes, we consider bringing our own containers to buy food for dining in. But we mostly only go as far as to bring our own cutlery. Using our own containers while eating there is too out of the social norm, we feel paiseh (embarrassed) when we have to resort to that. Why is it us that feel embarrassed? Shouldn’t it be the other way around; shouldn’t one feel bad for using disposables instead? Most of the times we end up boycotting the stall instead. It is easier that way. But we miss out on the good food 😦
It really shouldn’t be this hard to go green.
ramblings. 