I did a bit of clothes shopping the other day and it was only after I got home that I discovered that one store had cynically charged me an extra 15 cents for the paper bag that they had put my clothes in.
But wait. Why is the store the cynical one here? Shouldn’t I be happy doing my part to help save the environment from unnecessary waste?
Well, for starters, the store never mentioned the surcharge, meaning that they took my contribution to save the planet while also simultaneously advertising their store for granted. I was never really given the choice whether I wanted to help offset my ecological footprint with cash or by renouncing that bag completely. And I never really understood how paying for a bag that used to be “free” suddenly helps the environment so much as the store’s bottom line. Call me skeptical (once you’re finished calling me cynical naturally), but I somehow really doubt that those 15 cents are going directly to Greenpeace. Also, considering that I had just given them over 200 EUR, you think that they could spot the environment the spare change.
And, given that this shopping bag is now essentially a product, is it possible to return it for a refund if I’m unhappy with it? I’m pretty sure that this would be the case with any other bag I bought there. I still have the receipt and reusing the bag would indeed be environmentally friendly, which is what this is all about in the end. (Isn’t it?)
Finally, what right does the fashion industry in particular have to lecture anyone about environmental awareness? After all, we are talking about a segment of the economy where estimates are that anywhere between 80 to 150 billion articles per year are produced and of which 10 to 40% are never sold. (At the risk of being obvious, the reason that these numbers are estimates, and such vague ones at that, is because the fashion industry is not very forthcoming about the real numbers for some strangely unknown reason. To me, this is a clear sign that the real numbers are likely pushing the higher end of the estimated ones.)
Nevertheless, it remains that I am the cynical one for wondering how the end user paying for a bag that prevents five articles of clothing from ending up in a landfill is the vital cog in guaranteeing a future for our children …
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