January 23, 2008
A plastic bag-free zone
I hesitate to draw too big a conclusion from a single incident but I was struck by the fact that, when I went to the supermarket in Davos yesterday, I was not offered a plastic bag at the check-out. I was expected to have brought my own bag.
Meanwhile, one of the customers was carefully re-cycling all her plastic bottles in a container near the entrance.
It felt odd because I have become used to New York stores, which hand out plastic bags with abandon and are eager to "double-bag" anything that is a bit heavy. The only US supermarket I have shopped at that obviously encourages its customers to stop using plastic bags is Trader Joe’s, which is owned by Aldi, the German discount chain.
In environmental matters, it seems that that European countries are still in the lead. Mind you, they still allow you to smoke in Davos restaurants and a lot of people do.
