Bad Plastic, Bad Bad

We're sitting on a bench waiting for the subway train to take us to Boyo's "art" class (not much of an art class, I must admit, but it mixes him with other kids, albeit 4- and 5-year-olds) and this lady with her horde of plastic bags each barely filled with groceries (I quickly deduce that she could easily fit all the items into less than half the number of bags) keeps smiling at Boyo. Boyo hams it up and she says, "My, he's so cute. Truly adorable."
    "Yes," I say. "It's a good thing, too, otherwise I'd have thrown him out."
    She appears instantly abhorred. She rises and continues her wait near the edge of the platform away from us. (Hmm... whatever.) A woman near us says, "Don't worry, I know what you mean—sometimes I want to deep-six my kids, too!" We laugh about it and Way Too Many Plastic Bags Lady harrumphs on.

And speaking of plastic...
My favourite local health food store—HEALTH FOOD STORE, my droogies— has replaced all of its wooded bins of bulk spices, seeds, pastas, etc. with brand new, shiny plastic ones. Plastic. Plastic. This is a health food store. Health food. He-e-ealth, as in healthy. I mention the new bins to the owner: "New bins, eh?"
    "Yes," he grins. "We really like them."
    Crud. I move on holding my tongue, not buying any bulk. Health food store!? Hello...?

Then, at the hardware store...
I need a better light bulb for my front porch and I'm looking for the outdoor compact fluorescent ones. I really like these new compact fluorescent light bulbs, they last for ages (I haven't changed one of them in years!), but why are they sold in plastic packaging? They boast "energy star ratings" and preach "low environmental impact" and yet they package the blessed things in the evil, non-recyclable type of plastic, dammit. The old-style bulbs were always wrapped in corrugated paper. Honestly, what gives?

And another thing: what's with the DVD packaging? Are they ever going to stop the waste and redesign the case? DVDs are circular and their cases should be square—look at the CD packaging for crying out loud. Of course, CD cases should also be card-stock instead of plastic, but at least they are a better fit to the product contained there-in. I'm aware that the DVD case size is to mimic that of the way-out-dated VHS tapes, but, come on, it's been years. Years! Get on with it already.

I'm not even going to mention the horrific amount of plastic toys on the market. It drives me super wacky nuts, I tell you. Besides, Jen already mentioned it (among other things) in one of her posts. So go read that and all the comments. And stop buying plastic crap.

* * * *

Ooo, late addendum:
Supermom is dramatically ill and her husband had taken the day off work to help out. I called over there to see how things were going and he said things were good and that Supermom was crashed out in the sack. Then, he adds: "My hat is off to her and you and anyone else who is a stay-at-home parent, I can barely handle two days. You guys are amazing and I tell this to everyone at work. Thank christ for you lot."
(Nice, eh? I just wanted to end this post on a high note.)