Triple Bag that for you?

It's plastic bag craziness here. Last time I visited Brazil, my sister-in-law took me shopping to Mundial, a big box store with a ton of people, shopping carts and narrow aisles. At the till, a bagger, (is that what you call people who put your purchases in plastic bags?) proceeded to put each item I had bought in one bag, meaning one mango in one bag, one bottle of milk in another bag, one pack of sponges in another bag, and not only that but each bag was double bagged. I almost fainted in disbelief. Once in the parking lot with my zillion bags, I asked my sister-in-law, what the frick is that all about? She explained that the bags in Brazil are cheaply made and break easily, so all the customers insist that everything be double-bagged. I couldn't believe it! She also explained that people like them because of the counter garbage pail. Counter garbage pail, you ask? Yes. I'm not sure if this is something that exists elsewhere, but I do have to admit it's pretty handy when I'm peeling veggies or scraping plates after a meal. It's just too bad it's not a compost counter garbage pail, but a catch all for everything.

My counter garbage pail

Having returned to Brazil, I've noticed happily that they now offer "reusable" bags, you know the larger ones with sturdy cord handles, available at most markets for a few dollars. I bought four and off I went to shop! Yay! Back at the till, I quickly noticed that I was the only one with the reusable bags, and everyone else was still double bagging each item.

I was so disappointed. So there I am, unloading my cart and keeping the kid entertained, only to notice suddenly that the bagger lady had put everything I had bought in double plastic bags and THEN put everything in my reusable bags. I started laughing, I was so shocked and tried to explain that I didn't need the bloody plastic bags! She said: "But what if your bag breaks and everything rolls out?"

According to the Brazil Ministry of the Environment's "Bags Suck" campaign, in 2010, Brazilians used 1.5 million plastic bags an hour which translated to 12 billion bags a year. The three largest chain of supermarkets, which cover 50% of the market were on board from the get-go and took initiatives to reduce the use of plastic bags and to encourage customers to reuse bags which in 2010 reduced the total amount of bags by 800 million bags. Sounds good right? But don't the numbers seem insane? Even with that reduction, that's still 11 billion 200 million bags a year!

Okay, so I compared Canada and 2010 stats I got from the Globe and Mail with Brazil and divided the total amount of bags used by each country's population at that time. My questionable math skills resulted in this : That's 56 bags per Brazilian per year, and 84 bags per Canadian per year! According to Rolling Stone Magazine, each American use 500 plastic bags per year! It seems the whole world is in love with plastic bags, and there's an overwhelming amount of information all about plastic bags out on the web, but one thing is for sure, seeing all that double bagging has reinforced in me that I need to always bring my reusable bags! Just like I usually carry my water bottle so that I won't have to buy water in a plastic bottle. Oh, plastic water bottles in Brazil... oh, don't get me started!

Plastic bag drawer

Rolls of plastic bags left behind by the owner of our apartment

Plastic bag lady