Green shopping

After months of intending to bring my own reusable bag for groceries, I finally remembered yesterday. Okay, technically I didn’t remember – it happened to be in my tote because I’d used it as an umbrella of sorts during a particularly rainy morning.

“I don’t need a plastic bag,” I told the woman at the supermarket checkout. The guy queuing behind me watched me take out my bag. Curiosity got the better of him.

“Excuse me, did you bring that from home?” he asked in Cantonese.

Because my Cantonese supremely sucks, I only managed a “yes” and a smile.

“That’s so environmentally-friendly,” he said. (Even though my spoken Cantonese sucks, I understand what people say because I mentally translate everything into Mandarin.)

“Thank you”. Smile. Couldn’t think of anything to say in Cantonese.

“Did you want to put those in the bag too?”

And before I knew it, he had helped me pack my groceries into the bag. He even asked for a plastic bag to separate my drinks from my washing detergent.

“Good day,” he said when I – or should I say he – was done.

“You too.” Smile, of course.

And just like that, I’m reminded that for all the crime, dishonesty and incompetency that surround me, there are still genuinely nice people out there. God, grant me the wisdom to tell the difference between the good guys and the jerks.

Later on, I wondered why I care about not using plastic bags. I definitely don’t have any grand delusions about changing the world, but it’s always been a habit to decline a plastic bag whenever I buy something that fits into my tote.

Part of it has to do with my new determination to reduce my material possessions – if there’s one thing moving five times in three years has taught me, it’s that I really don’t need that many things to live comfortably and happily.

And the other part? I guess I just want to do what feels right by me even though I can’t control how everyone else around me behaves. I am concerned about the environment and climate change and the fact that we, as humans, have screwed up so bad we might never be able to halt the damage, after all.