what a wanderful world...

i had been quite critical of SM City's Green Bag campaign. for one, it seemed that the bags were marketed as fashion accessories: cute, comes in a variety of designs (by renowned artists even) and pretty cheap too, so you can have one for every day of the week. true enough, shoppers snapped up the bags like they were the latest in things. i had witnessed a few successful sales of the green bag at the grocery cashouts; shoppers bought the bags because they were cute, or because they were cheap ("35 pesos lang may bagong bag na ako?"), or because they came with a promo (two extra points on your SM advantage card). i've seen people get the bags, but i had never seen someone bring their own green bag to the store.

i had been asked if i wanted one a few times. but i never did because i had long made a habit of refusing to have my items bagged if they obviously fit into what i'm already carrying (and most of the time they do coz i usually carry large totes or a backpack). i also bring my own bags on planned trips to the grocery. i would then politely and good-naturedly point out to the checkout girls that i don't need a green bag because i already reuse what i have on me or at home.

what i get from these incidents with the fashionista shoppers and sm's own cashiers is that people seemed to miss the point. you're not supposed to get new stuff to add to the junk, you're supposed to reuse what you already have! i felt that SM was creating a demand for these bags but for the wrong reasons. if they kept going, i can only imagine the pile of SM green bags gathering dust in people's homes. the campaign had good intentions, but somehow the environmental values that they wanted to push (the 3Rs) were lost or weren't emphasized or reinforced enough.

and then SM launched the "Join the M.O.B. (My Own Bag)" campaign, and i was a little relieved. i went to the grocery today and to my pleasant surprise, all the checkout counters had nothing but paper bags and cardboard boxes as packing materials on them. before the transaction the checkout girl politely informed me that they only had paper bags today, and if it was alright with me. of course it was.

the reactions were interesting. a few clients welcomed it, some were undecided about the development, but everyone was surprised. there were a few debates between clients and baggers because the number and composition of items made it a choice between lugging a big bulky box or several paper bags with no handles on them. the scheme was not unnoticed by the drivers at the jeepney terminal outside the mall, as they saw passenger after passenger coming in with paper packages. their reaction however, was more of concern for economics/customer service for sm: "naunsa na man ang sm, papel na lang ilang kaya ihatag sa customer? (what's happening to sm, they can only afford to give paper bags to the customers now?")

overall, everyone seemed inconvenienced by the scheme. i was a little worried myself because of all days, today was a day i forgot to bring my own bag (it happens), and i feared that the paper bags couldn't handle the weight. i was tempted to request for a plastic bag, and here came the best part of my grocery trip to sm: i was told they were going to charge me P3 if i wanted a plastic bag.

yes! that's the way to do it! i've never been so happy to be inconvenienced, but this is exactly the kind of conditioning that this recycling campaign needs. people have to feel that recycling creates savings for them, and that not recycling entails costs. hit them where it hurts - their wallets - ika nga, and it should teach people to be more conscious.

this is how they already do it in europe. plastic bags cost between 20-30 eurocents each - about 15-20 pesos. that's a lot, especially on a student budget. so everyone brings their own bag with them to the store. there is also almost always a folded bag left in our bikes in case of unplanned shopping trips. lastly, almost all stores designate an area where they leave a pile of used boxes that clients can pick from to pack and carry their groceries. otherwise, you pay the price for a new bag.

i don't know now if SM was deliberate about this, but i really felt relieved that the sale of green bags was followed up with this M.O.B. campaign aimed at shaping people's actions rather than fulfilling their desire to be trendy and fashionable. i think the M.O.B. campaign is only on its first week, and i am eager to find out what happens next. hopefully it encourages all of us to be more aware of our lifestyles and to be more creative about making our lives less of a waste factory than it already is. good luck SM, good luck us.

n.b. SM's M.O.B. happens every wednesday, but why not do it everyday, and everywhere! good luck lang sa gaisano stores - they are stubborn about bagging your items, even if you only bought a pen and you're bringing a huge backpack. then they seal the bags with that heating thing that looks like a giant stapler, forcing you to rip the bags apart to open, so you can't even reuse the bags for the trash can. grrr.