Ok, so first norms and Ireland. Apparently in the past few years, people in Ireland have been refusing to use plastic bags for any of their shopping. While plastic bags aren't illegal, being spotted with one has become akin to committing social suicide, according to a recent NYTimes article. Ireland has always been pretty far ahead of the curve on this issue, requiring a 33 cents tax on all plastic bags and encouraging people to use recyclable alternatives (when I was there a few years back, you couldn't even buy plastic bags in some stores, making it very difficult for me to carry my groceries the first time I discovered this). Basically a new norm has been established that has a socially regulating effect on plastic bag usage. If only that could happen here! (As a side note, I have attempted to use only cloth bags since I moved to Pittsburgh and I've been amazed by the response from some check out people. When I say I don't need a bag, they look at me skeptically and kind of scowl. Then if my bags get filled and I have to use plastic bags, they get annoyed when I ask them not to double bag them (which is SO unnecessary). Trader Joes, of course, have been the exception to the rule! There are obviously norms at work here as well: not questioning the checkout people and using plastic bags without thought).
Ok, onto norms with me. So if you notice, this post is a little late. And I thought about just changing the date on the bottom so that it would look like I posted this on Thursday. But then I decided that I would be a better person and follow the norm of honesty. I don't have to, but the social norms of honesty that my parents embedded in me are pretty strong (that and the article I posted above is from today so it would have been kind of hard to pull off that farce effectively). Basically the reason this is late is because Tuesday I got a virus on my computer that destroyed my entire operating system. Thankfully the heroes over at the Pitt Oscar Tech desk fixed it up, but it did take several days and many hours, time that I would normally have dedicated to getting my homework in on time!
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I do feel comfortable bagging my own darn groceries. I usu. say smth like, "hey, I got these, that woman over on checkout #4 could probably use some help though." I have received some responses like, "I'll lose my job if you do that," or "that's okay, I don't mind bagging your stuff."
However, I do get my way and go for the canvas that I brought with me and for the overflowing veggies, I sometimes use a plastic bag. Now, that you bring it up, I do feel that bagging my own groceries differently from the way a bagger has been commanded means I should do it myself. And yet, I feel bad if I ask them to do it differently. But really, is the norm I'm "violating" simply the norm of 'let the bagger bag your groceries?' That seems so silly.
We use financial incentives (or disincentive in the case of Irish plastic bags) to bring about a norm change. We post signs, levy taxes, issue citations, post warnings, etc. to establish behavioral patterns that someone with the authority has deemed necessary for safety and order. We violate some freely without thought, feel guilty for others, consider violating but don't some, avoid violating some, and never violate other norms. That's quite a range of behavior and is what makes culture shock in other places so confounding at times.
Also, it's crazy that we have all these laws and rules, but it's the norm of plastic bags being seen as despicable that has actually changed actions.
I think in the Irish case, there are definitely heavy outside influences that affect norms. I wonder if the norm would have developed on its own or if it only came about due to increased tax and gradual unavailability of plastic.
And just as a quick note about plastic bags and waste in this country--in Florida, the grocery has a bin outside to drop off your old plastic bags which they then reuse.
You wanna hear the worst case of guilt ever because of this norm?
I decided to stop using plastic bags at Giant Eagle and plastic and paper at Whole Foods.
So after this decision, I went to Giant and got four of those reusable bags. I was so proud.
I did the same at Whole Foods with those fun reusables they have with the fruits on them and such.
That was about 6 months ago.
Well, I'm one of those "she'd forget her head if it weren't attached" people and as such... I have about two dozen of those reusable bags laying around my apartment. Because just about every time I do food shopping, I forget to take the bags with me and invariably there is some bag-of-granola-holding hipster standing behind me who remembered her bags and so I feel guilty about using plastic bags in front of people who clearly don't and so I buy more.
This norm of using reusable bags might end up working against everyone as GE and WF is going to have to like, bulldoze a rainforest to build another factory to make enough resuable fiber bags for me to buy and use every time I need milk and fruit (and by fruit I mean cookies.)
The first time I was in Europe, I discovered that shops don't give you plastic bags. Or any kind of bags. You must buy them, but they're usually rather sturdy-- I still have a couple kicking around from 10-ish years ago. My fellow travelers didn't believe me, so when buying snacks (by which I mean beer) in Berlin, we had a "put it in your backpack!" moment in front of a large line of people. Teehee.
But it does help to remember that Europeans don't do big weekly shops like we do-- they, in cities, anyway, go to the shop each day or two for basics like bread, eggs, milk... You haven't lived until you've bought eggs by the piece, and mispronouced the whole transaction in the local tongue.
And, seconding PeaceTurkey, I try to take a reusable carrier bag to Whole Foods, mostly because they give you a 5 cent discount. Score!
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