Costco: The Vault of Plastic

           (photo: http://orlandobulletin.com/orlando-fl/costco-wholesale/)

So I was walking through Costco in Orem, Utah with my sister Sarah while she was grocery shopping for her family. Urban Utah is mostly comprised of suburbs and chain stores. In Orem, it is harder to find a non-chain store than it is to find a bar. If you've been to Utah, you know what I mean.

As we peruse the aisles of Costco, noticing all the needless plastic. I smirked to my sister, "The only product requirement Costco has, is that the product must be wrapped in plastic".

My sister replied, "No, I really don't think so." Then she paused, glanced around the store (cue: crickets), then replied "Yeah, okay, maybe." I agreed with a nod.

As much as I love Costco and their free samples; I have realized in my recent plastic-less days that Costco is a vault of plastic.

Take this into Consideration:
-You need a plastic card to get in.
-The shelves are stacked three stories high with crated goods, wrapped in so much plastic they could float a sinker tank.
-A box of cold medicine will be wrapped in a case of plastic so over sized that it could also fit a box of Costco pizza in it.
-Even plastic items, such as plastic jars of applesauce, will be wrapped with additional plastic labeling and strapped to other plastic jars of applesauce with additional scarves of plastic.

Even sampling food was out of the option because the paper cup sample had little plastic spoons in each sample. (But I made it work, I stole a sample before the sample liaison spooned it.)

It was ironic, telling my sister how I have managed to live without buying plastic this year, while walking between the vast plastic parapets of Costco. But the point is that I have lived without buying plastic and that although so many people subscribe to the plastic way of life, I am forging a way that proves that plastic consumption is not necessary for survival and that there is a way to live plastic-free and be happy. Part of that life is not shopping at Costco.

One night stand with Plastic

"Multi Coloured Plastic Installation" -John Dahlsen

There is a tempting, irresistible practicality of one-use plastic products:  straws and lids for morning coffee, zip lock baggies for afternoon lunch, or a Wisp (Colgate’s one-use disposable toothbrush) to freshen up the bad breathe from the coffee. It’s easy to be taken away with the utilitarianism of one-use plastic products.

But, what once was a handy-ass plastic love affair becomes tomorrow’s garbage, garbage found on our beaches, our nature places, places where true love should bloom not plastic garbage installations. Instead of walking down the beach, hand in hand with one’s true love, one will be tripping over a plastic litter, falling face first into the ocean (which is also polluted – with more plastic).

Stiv Wilson had a similar experience. And after encountering plastic garbage on a remote surfer’s beach on the Oregon Coast, the Portland Writer and Environmentalist, “made the Plastic issue his own,” according to James Pitkin of the Willamette Weekly (March 16, 2011).

Wilson now works for the non-profit 5 Gyres Institute. Their mission is to end plastic pollution through conducting research and communicating about the global impact of plastic pollution in the world’s oceans and employing strategies to eliminate the accumulation of plastic pollution (5gyres.org). Wilson is also heading out the bill to end the use of plastic bags in Oregon.

“We’re not trying to rid the world of plastic,” Wilson says. “If I go to the hospital or want a tattoo, I sure as hell want the stuff. But so much of it lasts forever and is used for seconds. That’s what we’re trying to prevent.”

Single-use plastic is the one night stand with plastic. “It lasts forever and is used for seconds.”  America’s unhealthy relationship with plastic is creating a lot of ‘baggage,’ literally and figuratively.  Reducing and reusing plastic is like meaningful, long term relationships, which are more beneficial, than destructive. This is the type of relationship I desire to have in my life, not only with plastic but with all resources and people around me as well.

Plastic: use mindfully.