Do Americans buy unpackaged food? Have you, say, in 2022?
I’m beginning to think that every meal and snack of nearly every American involves some polluting, disposable packaging. When I see people consuming on the street, they’re nearly always consuming doof. Even if they buy food, it’s nearly always packaged.
Not that I’ve been checking, but I can’t remember a time I saw someone eating an apple on the street. Hundreds of times a day I see people carrying disposable coffee cups. I see them drinking coffee while riding their Citibikes.
When I find myself in supermarkets, even the fresh produce generally has a sticker or twist-tie, and nearly everyone puts their produce in plastic bags, often needlessly, like one apple.
Even at farmers markets, vendors give bags to nearly everyone. Come to think of it, I’ve seen people avoid bags there while buying produce that itself has no stickers or other packaging.
Still . . .
Has anyone thought the consequences through?
I haven’t heard anyone speak about the consequence of hundreds of millions of people producing garbage for three meals and probably three or more snacking periods (more?) every day, considering just Americans.
Most litter is far more than stickers and plastic produce bags. Typical takeout has pounds of plastic, paper, and who knows what hormone disrupting chemicals lacing it all.
Suggestion
If you have had a meal or shopping trip with no packaging, please let me know since I’m starting to believe no one does it. If you haven’t, I recommend trying it. See if you can go one meal with no packaged ingredients. If you buy them in a store, don’t accept any of their packaging to bring it home.
What it looks like
I searched on “Americans food shopping” and looked at images. Here are the first three images that came up of people shopping. Do you see anything that resembles something that grows in the ground on any shelf?
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