What is your clutter index?

I guess we need a new definition to gauge the progress and development of the society. It should depend on the amount of non-biodegradable waste we can generate in our day-to-day life. I would always be amazed by the by-products of grocery shopping in the US. A trip to Kroger’s or Jungle Jim’s would generate a lot of new plastic bags – in Midwest the baggers never asked paper or plastic – they just assumed plastic, unless you were buying wine or spirits! Then there were other items – the plastic can of milk and orange juice (sometimes a tetra pack) and the plastic bottles or cans of several carbonated beverages, yoghurt, the Styrofoam trays of meat and deli meat wrappers, the plastic wrappers of cookies, the cardboard containers of graham crackers and cereal and plastic bags of chips, Doritos, bagels etc. Add to that the flimsy plastic bags of green vegetables or fruit. After studying my erratic cooking patterns, I switched to using the frozen vegetables. The non-biodegradable index of garbage remained the same but the biodegradable surely reduced after the switch!

A trip to Food World recently reminded me of this garbage-business. Since parents are away, it is up to me to buy something, cook and feed myself. If you are my kind of shopper – no haggling, assume the quality is good, pay and get out of the shop – then probably Food World is the only place. So, off I go to Food World, armed with crisp notes from an ATM. I get the usual stuff and head home. Then the scrutiny starts – there are plastic bags of neatly wrapped tomatoes, some fresh cut ocra (lady fingers, bhindi) and fenugreek (?) (methi), a bag of onions, yoghurt can (dahi – mom’s not home, so need to buy yoghurt), two plastic bags containing fresh (but dead) Godrej chicken, a separate plastic bag for bread and some biscuits, cream biscuits (sandwich cookies) and light snack.

One trip to Food World and 213 less rupees in the pocket, I have amassed almost equivalent non-biodegradable waste I would after a trip to Kroger’s. I already start feeling guilty. Images of the flooded river Mithi haunt me.

The next week, I am a bit smarter and decide to buy the veggies in the conventional market. I know my father carries a cloth bag. I search for the bag at all conceivable places in home. I find the bag neatly folded along with several plastic bags in a kitchen cabinet. So, armed with the cloth bag, I go to the conventional market. I walk to the first shop, glance at a few veggies and start ordering – 250 gm Tomatoes, 500 gm onions, a bunch of spinach and 500 gm of peapods. After weighing everything, the vendoress pulled a plastic bag for all the veggies. I stopped her and handed over the cloth bag that was hidden in my pocket. With a couldn’t care less for it expression she took the bag and started putting the vegetables inside it. Now I feel all middle-aged eyes in the market on me: “Look, he did not even ask for the price!” “Oh my, that’s not 500 gm, and this guy – why is he shopping any way?” “Cloth bag? Cloth bag? – where did he come from?” But I brave it all, pay up and walk away self satisfied about my endeavor.

After a small trip to the Food World for other items, I return home. Enthusiastically I start cleaning the spinach and retrieving peas from the peapods. Soon, my garbage bag fills with all this biodegradable waste. But the joy is not long lasting. Other items have generated the equivalent amount of the non-biodegradable waste! Now, I face a predicament – here I am, shopping consciously and avoiding plastic bags, only to realize that the major component of it is still non-biodegradable! Seriously, what do I do with all those plastic bags now or after a few thousand years?!