Paper or Plastic?

A thought came to me yesterday... about plastic bags. I was contemplating a trip to WalMart. Let's be honest... Faye strongly suggested that I go with her to WalMart. This is about as close to ordering me to take her shopping as it gets. And is treated as if it were analogous. Which it certainly is.

WalMart does not ask you the title question. In reality, few stores do anymore. Publix (our major grocery store chain) simply says "Plastic OK?" instead of offering a choice. It implies you have one, though, even if you really don't.

Let's face it, we like plastic bags, don't we? They are easier to carry since they have handles built in. Paper bags once had these but I haven't seen one so equipped in many years. At least in grocery stores. Too expensive, I suspect. Paper bags have square, flat, bottoms. These make them easier to put in the trunk of one's car. Easier to control. And paper bags have many uses: masks for New Orleans Saints fans, for instance, of not so many years back (an idea they got from  the "Unknown Comic", no doubt). Plastic bags have no solid structure to them and spill their contents very easily. So the auto-makers add (often optional) a webbing which spans the width of the trunk into which we can plop those unruly plastic bags. Even if things spill out, they tend to stay in the webbing.

But my car does not have that webbing anymore. First, the piece to which it connects on the right side of the trunk fell out and will not secure itself again. So, in frustration, I tossed the now useless webbing aside (and eventually into the maw* that is my garage). Instead, I tend to pile things in the foot-well behind the driver's seat or on the back seat itself. What goes on the back seat are things which are unlikely to move around in normal driving. Things like cases of bottled water, things that have flat bottoms, things that are less likely to leak or slide around as I dodge traffic, or make turns,  on my way home.


* Things accumulate in my garage where they hide under other things I do not use or do not use often enough to keep them handy and in plain sight.