Today while I was organizing my “plastic bag” drawer, my mind flashed on a memory of something that happened awhile ago.
A friend invited me to hang out with her. She’s a coworker friend and we’d never hung out before, so I said OK.
She offered me some food–some macaroni and cheese that her husband had made the night before. Of course I accepted. She opened the refrigerator and pulled out a casserole dish. Instead of being wrapped in aluminum foil or saran wrap (or one of those tupperware covers), guess what it was covered in? A plastic grocery bag. The grocery bag had somehow been so snugly enveloped around the dish that every square centimeter of the plastic was in contact with the food. I had to turn away because I didn’t trust my face not to reveal the disgust I felt in that moment. I didn’t want to ruin the friendship we were solidifying by suddenly being rude and anal-retentive.
But I wanted so badly to say, “WTF!” Doesn’t everyone know those things aren’t food safe? I mean, I’m not gonna act like saran wrap is sterile, but surely it’s cleaner than the bag that all your groceries have been jostling around in, right? Why would anyone use a grocery bag when there are so many better alternatives? I could understand if my friend was impoverished, but she’s comfortably upper middle class. She can afford a 99 cent box of foil!
The mac and cheese was delicious and amazingly I didn’t die from the grocery bag cooties. But I swear, every time I see a grocery bag I have a mini flashback to that macaroni and cheese.
What weird habits (to you) do your friends have? And have you ever pointed those habits out to them?
She’s recycling her grocery bags as food wrap. It’s not sterile but, then, as you ponited out, neither is single-use cling film or aluminium foil. I doubt that this practice presents a signficant poisoning hazard and, from an environmental point of view, it has much to commend it.
I have a friend that uses those bags to toss salad in. (Didn’t really bother me though. But I can understand why it would others).
Same friend still uses snail mail to pay all his bills. It’s weird because he’s an engineer that works on sophisticated, high tech equipment. You’d think he’d be less of a luddite but he’s not.
I recycle the bags too. I used them as a receptical for kitty litter box turds. And I also use them to carry my shoes when I’m traveling. So perhaps this is why I have a psychological hang-up about these bags coming in contact with food.
Um, um … That’s actually kind of funny to me that you open a post with this subject with this sentence. You have a plastic bag drawer? That is pretty weird to me, especially if you’re freaked out about food contamination. Do you reuse plastic bags? What exactly is in your “plastic bag” drawer?
ETA: ok maybe your ninja post answers that. You recycle them but don’t use them for food?
Sticking with food related weirdness, I’ve never understood dipping pizza crusts in ranch dressing nor dipping fries in mayo. One of my closest friends does this and he is a professional chef!
If I start saving plastic grocery bags, my biggest storage problem quickly becomes “what do I do with all these grocery bags?” Once I bought one of those insulated lunch bags years ago, I had/have almost no use for them. They go straight into the recycle bin at my house.
The annoying thing is I’ve got a cloth grocery bag somewhere. I used it all the time when living in Chicago, but here in KY people the common perception seemed to be that I was shoplifting (despite often loading the bag right in front of store staff). It stopped being worth the security hassle pretty quickly.
markn+, over the past year, I’ve been really good about using reusable tote bags for my grocery shopping. But I’ve still got a really big plastic bag collection. I primarly use them as garbage bags (they fit nicely in the small garbage can in my bathroom) and to lug various knicknacks (shoes). I find it weird that someone would not have a “plastic bag” drawer (or cabinet or whatever)…assuming they live in a place where they haven’t been banned. It is kind of hard to be a modern consumer and not accumulate those things, even when one is conscientious about using reusable bags as much as possible.
I have a “bag of bags” on a shelf under my kitchen table. Because my husband.will.not throw.them away. We need a limited amount to recycle- no pets, and we only need maybe 10 bags a year to pack shoes.
I love the fact that, despite your revulsion, you still ate the mac n cheese!
I have a friend who’s a recycling nazi - I’m pretty good, but not on her level (she harasses me about my use of teabags, for instance). For Christmas, she gave me some home made grease proof paper for use instead of cling film (salen wrap??)
This stuff involved her spreading wax over old wrapping paper, and telling me to not ever throw it out, but just wipe and reuse it at will.
It’s in my top kitchen drawer. Makes me heave a bit every time I look at it.
I think I was a little confused by the term “plastic bag drawer”. I was picturing a drawer full of old ziplock bags crusted with food residue. I used to recycle plastic grocery bags (although I would not refer to a grocery bag by the simple term “plastic bag”, adding to my initial confusion). Plastic grocery bags have been banned where I live for several years, so I no longer recycle any type of plastic bag, although I have a closet full of paper grocery bags.
Grocery store started charging for bags (well every store in town), so I just buy the things like 5000at a time on Amazon. We use 'em for all kinds of stuff, but mostly trash related.
I put the plastic grocery bags in the recycle bin by default, and then if I need one (for non-food purposes), I fish one out. It’s basically clean in there. That way, i don’t accumulate a huge drawer full. I generally can find one near the top if I need one.
I am probably the weird one here, but I don’t understand why almost everyone puts coffee in first, and then milk and sugar. Sugar doesn’t dissolve as easily, but if you do milk or sweetener or both, if you put them in first and then the coffee, you don’t have to dirty a spoon. It’s much more efficient. But almost no one else seems to do this.
