Time to Retrieve our Basket Culture
Time to Retrieve and Revive Basket Culture
It's an age when environment protection is the uppermost in peoples' mind worldwide, and we are all in the same boat. Admonishments like Global Warming and Greenhouse Effect sound alarming and have been going around for decades, but recent headlines like the reappearance of some supposed-to-be-extinct tiger and the
helpless situation polar bears are in also seem to have brought in a mixed aura
of consternation and anxiety around the globe. The most ironic fact is, however
, that when it comes to personal (or individual nation's) sacrifices for the enviornment's interest, everybody (and nation) seems to hold the attitude of "letting George do it" and walk away. "Everybody's business is nobody's business" reads just perfectly applicable here.
Oh no, I am not interested in giving people lectures. But given the "unattended" plastic bags decorating the streets and swirling in the winds, maybe it's time we realized it is indeed an "it depends on you" business.
It's reported that some city government is proposing banning retailers from handing out plastic containers free of charge, and violators will be fined anywhere from 5,000 to 50,000 yuan. While many are running around hailing the new regulation, some are grouchy. They argue that they are used to the free bags and they do not want to have the convenience taken away.
Obviously it's neither here nor there. Can being addicted to the ugly custom
justify this mispractice that is, after all, a huge source of pollution? The human habitat is not going to improve if we residents just complain and whine but
without a willingness to do our own bit.
There was a time here when people went to the supermarket all with a basket at
arms. Though looking old-fashioned, now the traditional custom seems to be very much of a virtue. Few people seem to have the recollection when disposable plastic bags (and chopsticks) came to take over the custom and how long they have
dominated our life ever since. They are handy and have sure made human life a lot more convenient, but at a cost that will cost our future, or more precisely,
our kids' future.
Isn't it high time that we retrieved and revived our basket culture? Or at least, for those incorrigible plastic bag addicts, it's time they began keeping their plastic bags and bringing them to the supermarket for more, repeated uses.
Save for a rainy day.
Pan.
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