They love plastic here

The Indonesians love plastic bags. Everything you buy, will be put in a plastic bag. During our three weeks here, we have accumulated all those plastic bags in the picture above (and this is not even half of them). Most are so small that you can’t even reuse them as trash bin bags. When you are grocery shopping, most items will be packed separately in plastic bag by the cashier in category order, fresh meat will get their own bag, fruits and vegetables (that already packed in plastic) will get their own bag, and colonial product and so on.

I bought a couple of bagels today, from our local supermarket. You get the bread at the baker’s counter, the baker will put the bagels in a paper bag for you. Then you go to the cashier to pay for the bread, the cashier always asks if I want a plastic bag.

Today I told him, I will have a plastic bag, but on one condition: if you let me take a picture of you packing my paper bag in a plastic bag. I didn’t get a plastic bag.

Even when you buy sushi, the little wasabi bags are individually packed in little zipper bags. Someone went through the trouble of packing these lite bags in another set of bags.