Reduce, Recycle, Re…Eh

I read today that NYC Mayor Bloomberg has proposed a six-cent surcharge for each plastic bag a consumer uses to carry off purchased goods. Critics say it’s a terrible time to start introducing more fees into consumers’ lives, but I say it’s about time. In fact, I think more communities should start up this initiative. It forces consumers to be more green-minded, and as for those who aren’t fazed by the nominal fee, the shame of having to buy a plastic bag under this model is theoretically enough persuasion (a great point made by the article linked above).

France has been doing this for years now. Of course, you pay more per bag, but the bags are rather sturdy and made from recyclable plastic. That is one aspect of reusable materials at which France has a leg up over the U.S. I’ve noticed since coming back to the States that 99% of the plastic food packaging and bags that have come into my possession aren’t recyclable. While I'd prefer paper--or better yet, something wholly resuable--over a recyclable plastic bag any day of the week, to this I say, "Tsk, tsk, America."

You know those reusable shopping bags made of hardy plastic or canvas now selling like hot cakes in most eco-conscious supermarkets? Again, France has us beat. All manner of French people, whether a frail octogenarian lady or a strapping twentysomething male, does their shopping with the aid of a caddy (see pictured). It’s the perfect wheely-bag solution for carting grocery purchases and more around the city. While to the American eye it looks “so grandma,” in France, it just is. There’s no cultural taboo. And it just so happens to be a very green solution. (I have to admit, I never went there as my canvas bag from Cole Hardware managed to do the trick. But, it was yet another reason I got stared at—having a shopping container other than a caddy! Jeez, the French do not like nonconformists.)

You may wonder what came first—the caddy or the green movement—and I can tell you with utmost confidence that it was certainly the caddy. The French like to boast about how “eco” they are, but on a micro scale, it’s not entirely true. Yes, they recycle, but in a rather slipshod manner. My former Parisian office—in which tons of photocopies were made and left for dead—only started recycling paper in September. Of 2008! OK, OK, it’s a tiny office, you might say in its defense, but I observed nary a recycling bin in the headquarters of one of France’s biggest banks, where I taught three days a week. In that same building, I once wanted to throw away a soda can during a lesson. I saw two identical-looking bins in the conference room where I was teaching. I asked my student which bin I should use, he looked at me quizzically, and I had to ask, “Which is regular trash and which is recycling?” He replied, “Come on, this is France—there is no difference.” The ugly truth is that businesses don't want to pay recycling fees. Blurgh. Don't get me started.

When recycling is done in France, it’s not very well thought out. Some Parisian residential buildings get big bins, while others get jack and tenants have to cart their mounds of recycling to public recycling depositories, intermittently located on sidewalks. You never know where you might find one. Our building was thankfully graced with bins; there were a couple large ones for “all recyclable stuff” and a tiny one for glass. I noticed that while our fellow tenants were avid recyclers, they didn’t always put recyclable items into the former bin, shoving in things such as non-recyclable plastic bags (a.k.a. the bane of my existence, aside from junk snail mail...all that wasted paper). Has no one taught them how to read for the proper recycling logo? And they call Americans lazy!

Consequently, the designated glass-only bin at our building was always overflowing, and thus tons of little (often non-recyclable plastic) bags of glass bottles were left scattered on the ground around it. Our poor super had to deal with that problem every week when it was time to take out the bin, and I’d venture to guess that those non-recyclable bags made their way into the recycling, too. You’d think that in a country where so many glass bottles of wine are consumed, there would be a better solution.

I know the U.S. is spotty on this issue, and maybe my experience is so filtered through the lens of the San Francisco bubble (my local waste collector provides compost bins, for crying out loud!), but it seems that urban Americans, at least, have more successfully built recycling into daily habits. Let’s see if New York’s new experiment will help keep more icky-for-the-planet plastic bags at bay.