Last summer I wrote about an ‘endangered’ species—the plastic straw. I noted that in Kathmandu use of plastic straws was dying out. Indeed, most cafes and restaurants were turning towards either metal straws or paper ones. I also noted that across many countries the plastic bag was also on its way out. We were encouraged to bring our own cloth bags to supermarkets and were likely to get a thick paper bag in clothes shop.

Meantime in Kathmandu many of the small shops continued to give out plastic bags with every purchase of two or three vegetables. Which was, I hate to admit it, fine with me as I use plastic bags to package up my rubbish to set outside for the garbage collection people. And plastic bags are great for putting dirty gym clothes, wet swimsuits, kids’ lunches, etc. In that case, as long as you keep using the same bag time and time again, there is some justification in it.

However, even in Kathmandu the larger supermarkets stopped giving plastic bags at the checkouts. Customers who didn’t have their own bags, or couldn’t find a box (rare themselves these days) to carry their purchases home, were obliged to buy a cloth bag. So when my mother mentioned that in the UK, where she is in lockdown, when she gets her delivery from the supermarket, everything comes, once again, in plastic bags, a light bulb went off.  

I realized that the deliveries I have had here in Kathmandu during lockdown have indeed come in plastic bags. Which hadn’t registered with me until my mother mentioned it. So I carried out a quick survey among friends around the world. Which countries have reverted back to plastic bags and which were maintaining their eco-friendliness through non-plastic bags?

Most countries allow people to go to supermarkets to shop during lockdown.  And in those cases, it was business as usual. People were carrying their own cloth bags as previously. Except supermarkets in Canada, which are telling people NOT to bring cloth bags unless they pack everything themselves. They do not want their staff touching bags coming in from outside. 

But among friends who have goods delivered here is the unofficial, tiny sample sized results of my survey: Canada—plastic bags; Belgium—cardboard cartons; France—thick paper bags; the UK—plastic bags; the US—plastic bags. It seems Europe has come out on top!  

So while the air is fresher with fewer vehicles on the road and less planes in the sky, the land is getting time to breathe without construction, logging, fracking etc, and wildlife is getting a much needed respite from mankind, this might all be undone with the Return of the Plastic Bag. (Cue eerie post-apocalypse music.)