Reusable Items-Plastic Bags

I was in line at our grocery market store yesterday and was buying my dinner. It consisted of one drink, a bag of chips, bowl of pasta, and a pudding cup. I was having trouble carrying all of the items so I reached for one of the plastic bags placed so conveniently right next to the cash register when I remembered that I promised myself to give up plastic items like cutlerly, bags, straws and lids. I then managed to carry all of my items to my table and began to enjoy my dinner. I then proceded to watch another student buy only two items, a granola bar and a soda, and then place both in a plastic bag, walk to the dinner table, remove the items, then throw away the bag. This student could have easily carried her two items and done without the bag. Instead she decided to use a one-time use, non-biodegradable, bag that she didn't even have a use for in the first place.

So I'm on my second week of not buying anything and trying to reduce my impact on the world. This Sunday was my day off and I was allowed to go to the store and due some shopping. I really only needed to buy some shampoo and conditioner so I figured I would just go, buy it, and leave. I brought my reusable bag to the Walmart and went and got my two items. When I was checking out, I saw a man buy only two tomatoes. The tomatoes were placed inside the plastic bag from the produce section and when he paid for them he put them inside another plastic bag. The sheer inefficiency of this purchase was astounding. The man only bought two tomatoes when I could have bought more. Also, he double bagged the tomatoes when he could have used a reusable cloth bag. This really upset me but made me realize that the root problem of our negative environmental impact stems from our midset. People believe things are necessary when they aren't. The concepts of "needs" and "wants" hace become so skewed and overlapped so much that there no longer is a clear distinction of actual necessities compared to luxuries. Society's members need to redefine what they actually need to survive in their lives and what is just there for comfort and entertainment. Perhaps if people did this there would be less of such a huge environmental impact on the world with much less pollution and waste. In fact, I think if poeple did this there definitely would be a decrease in the amount of pollution disposed of. So next time you are doing an activity think, is this necessary for my survival? Am I just generating more waste for my own selfish entertainment?