The world is awash in a sea of plastic

I don’t mean to be indelicate here, but if you want a sure sign of the aging demographic within society look not just to all the wonderful pharmaceuticals designed to address the ‘unable to get it up’ syndrome, but also to all the TV advertising devoted to incontinence garments.

Nothing wrong with either per se. Indeed, they provide a little proof that not all is bad with the modern world in that randy old goats can continue to be randy even longer, and nobody needs to suffer the embarrassment of wetting their knickers in public – at least so the public knows about it.

(As an aside, and not bragging but I don't happen to need either -- yet)

But, I will now go to a campaign that is gaining momentum, and that is the hopeful decline of the ubiquitous use of plastic bags for every shopping trip. We have just gone through years of frivolously utilizing these environmental abominations, and then we have discarded them, heedless of the fact that even if the apocalypse should transpire, the bags will go on, and on, and on, right along with the cockroaches.

While I am not environmentally hysterical, I applaud admonitions against (so called) throwaway plastic bags. They are evil. They clutter the environment and landfills and they don’t break down. They abound in the seas of the world from the Arctic to the Antarctic, and everywhere in between. They choke the wonderful sea turtles (and don’t mess with my sea turtles, I love ‘em) that mistake them for jellyfish. They’ve been known to strangle dolphins, and so on, and so on. They’re terrible things, and we don’t need them.

One alternative has been the provision of reusable grocery bags. I like that concept. We have a whole bunch of them in a cupboard and, of course, I invariably forget to bring one along when I got to pick up a few items. Give me time. I’ll learn. I can see how these store bags have a potential to become snobbery items. You know, should you have a bag from Harrod’s or Neiman Marcus you are going to use such bags to impress neighbors who sport bags from, say, ‘Sam’s Grocery’. But, that’s OK. People are who they are, and as long as they’re not using plastic bags, I am happy. And, we should take time out to commend the merchants who will no longer provide them. Here in Canada, SuperStore is eschewing their use. I'm sure there are merchants in your community doing likewise. Encourage them.

But, back to those disposable grown-up folk nappies. We have had the so-called disposable ones for infants, but now we have larger ones for much larger folk. Quite seriously, as the years go by, what are we to do with those? Many brands are meant to be peed in and chucked, not laundered. Well, that’s not entirely environmentally responsible. My suggestion is that if you or somebody in your family needs this product, then get ones that can be laundered. Otherwise, we're still behind the environmental eight-ball.