This controversy was submitted to the inimitable Beepscast for discussion. I’ll update soon with the thrilling answer.

So, this is a food safety / common courtesy / environmental policy controversy.

Have you ever noticed that when people go to the super market they all put all the vegetables from the veggie aisle in individual plastic bags for each vegetable type?

Well, circa 2007 I decided that was a waste.

I mean you put your tomatoes in a bag for 25 minutes, get home and then remove them from the bag, and throw the bag away (or maybe recycle it if you’re good), but why should you consume a WHOLE plastic bag’s worth of the earth’s resources for just 25 minutes of use?

It makes no sense! So I stopped using those bags. I just put the vegetables directly in the cart. And for years I felt great.

But then this past summer I went to the cape with Chape and he saw me doing that and called me out as being a weirdo. And then I started thinking about it all over again and feel super self conscious.

Things that now bother me:

a) Am I making the cashier/bagger people’s job worse by having my vegetables and fruits rolling free?

b) Am I getting all kinds of weird germs on my veggies and fruits by having them free balling on the conveyor belt? #ebola

c) Because my vegetables are loose, and sometimes they just got sprayed with those sprayer things they are wet sometimes. So then I make the conveyor belt wet with the fruits… which means for the rest of the day am I making everyone else’s fruits and vegetables wet? Is that okay? Am I subtly ruining everyone else’s shopping experience?

d) Is all of the above true, but it’s okay because I’m saving the environment one bag at a time?

Every time I go to the super market my check out experience is kind of ruined by these thoughts.

Should I continue shunning the veggie bags?