My plasticware collection,
purchased from various op shops
$1 - $2 each

Whenever I pull out my reusable containers at a Chinese restaurant, a waiter sees what I’m planning to do and hurries out the back to fetch me some disposable take-away containers and a plastic bag. “Thank you, but I prefer to use my own,” I say.

At a Vietnamese bakery, I handed the woman serving me an old plastic bread bag for her to put my new loaf into. She started laughing and said, “Recycle!” Then she shook her head, still laughing, and as she slid the loaf into the bag she said again, “Recycle! Recycle!”

When I asked a middle-aged woman in a milk bar if I could have my hot dog without the paper bag she exclaimed, “But it’s only paper! It’s not like it’s plastic.” “Still, I’d prefer not to have it, if that’s okay,” I said. “Look,” she returned, indignant, “it’s easier to eat this way. You just peel the paper back, see?” I didn’t know what to say to that.