Quite a number of years ago I skipped off to the Arndale shopping centre in Manchester to buy birthday supplies for my partners birthday, lived in the city centre, so about a 25 min walk each way. I excitedly selected all the bits and bobs to make a cake and a few nice little things, went to pay, and all my items were put in a paper bag, ok I thought, that’s fine, I suppose it’s better for the environment, well it’s not better for a Manchester environment, it rains a lot in case any of you haven’t been there. By the time I got home I was reduced to a foul mouthed slightly sobbing wreck, as the rain had reduced my paper bag to mush and all my supplies kept slipping from my arms sporadically, with me trying to stack and insert them into the mushy stump that was left of my bag, from that day forward I’ve hated all paper bags, when paper straws were introduced it was like my old foe had kept away from me, regrouped into a different form, and then snuck back in disguise to ruin my life all over again!
I can’t stand anything paper or card being near food, makes me gag 😂. Any chips from the fish shop touching the paper for example, I can’t touch, I’m weird, same with paper straws, just wet paper and card really, so there is lots I don’t touch now, my issue alone though.
Us humans have kind of backed ourselves into a corner really. Take everyone saying that some disabled or ill folk need straws to keep hydrated, or else they would be in trouble. Well here is a great example of how over the centuries humans have invented things to help save people who wouldn’t have thrived and would have died, and it’s wonderful we have, but in doing so we are creating lot of waste, like plastic straws, the alternatives go soggy, but we are resourceful and as we go along hopefully someone will think of something that doesn’t go soggy, doesn’t taste weird, feel weird or hurt kids mouths and also isn’t made of plastic, that includes sippy type cups, that will replace the plastic ones properly. But ultimately we still have to manufacture all these things, so it’s just the way the world is, as I say we are backed into a corner where a lot of wasteful things are things we need to survive, like disposable gloves in hospitals for example.
We will absolutely make ourselves extinct one day, but I sure as shit don’t have the solution, but I sure do hate paper straws and paper bags 😂