I used to collect plastic bags.
I never threw out a plastic bag, and so consequently I had a closet full, and several drawers too. Stuffed into the smallest of crevices in the kitchen and laundry.
I was a plastic bag hoarder.
I never knew when I'd need a plastic bag, and I never wanted to be left short.
I used plastic bags the way other people used shoulder bags. I used plastic bags when I was travelling, instead of a toiletry bag. I used them to keep my dirty washing in, and to stuff into the sleeves of my jackets when I packed them into suitcases. A little trick to prevent wrinkles.
Just in these few sentences, you can get some idea of the multitudinous uses of plastic bags. Is it little wonder then that I hoarded them so assiduously?
All that came to an end though when I came back from the Camino.
I no longer had an irrational need to keep several hundred plastic bags in a cupboard where, by rights, saucepans should have resided.
I can't tell you the exact moment on the Camino when I shed myself of this need to collect plastic bags. I do know that during the walk, on the odd occasion I stayed in a swanky hotel, I did collect feminine hygiene plastic bags.
They were just the right size for my toothbrush.
Anyway, it's one of the great mysteries of the Camino for me – that I came back no longer needing to hoard plastic bags.
I'd like to tell you that I took all my plastic bags into the back yard and had a ceremonial burning. That didn't happen. There were so many I was afraid I would have burnt down the house.
But my wife and I have been slowly using them up, and soon there will be none. And I will feel a free man once again. Thanks to the Camino.
PGS - The Way 
Oh Bill, I am laughing so hard… I can just imagine your cupboards etc… like hoarders, but instead of all kinds of stuff… a mountain of plastic bags. Oh so, you would have been one of those annoying pilgrims riffling through those bags early mornings… tsk tsk tsk 😉
When your last one is gone, tell us, we will all clap in glee, you will be able to hear us from all over the globe! Ingrid
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haha – Ingrid, I still collect Aldi bags though, the discount supermarket chain here, because they don’t use plastic bags – you have to buy them for 15 cents and then reuse them when you return.
It’s a good system.
Bill
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Yeah!! A big gold star for you Bill and I can hear a huge sigh from the natural environment. :-))
If only there were a few more who felt the same way. Scientists tell us a few things which are disturbing: [ there are lots more of course]
These ubiquitous bags are made of petroleum and / or chemicals. [ a few “bio” bags now
being made] Maybe they aren’t quite so harmful.
Bags never fully decompose – just turn into smaller and smaller pieces of plastic.
Exposure to sunshine, “photo degradation” helps them break down.
Just as well you didn’t burn them – the toxic fumes in the atmosphere would have been disastrous.
I loathe plastic bags. I refuse to use them. I actively encourage the kids at school to badger their parents to not use them also. I drive them nuts, banging on about environmental protection. Finally, we are managing to reduce our waste and reduce our footprint. As stewards of the Earth, we are all called to care for what God has gifted to us.
Great work, Bill. What are you going to do with all that freed up space you now have?
Did you find a lot of places in Spain used plastic bags? To live what I believe, do I need to bring a small lightweight bag for the supermercado?
Now, don’t get me started on disposable coffee mugs! That’s for another time.
Blessings
Anne
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hi anne – thanks for this reply!
like you, I find the thought of plastic bags and their long term impact on the environment really disturbing – particularly when they float around the oceans killing sea life etc.
I didn’t stop collecting plastic bags for that reason though – just because I no longer had a hoarding mentality towards them. Strange.
But I think it comes back once again to fear.
I think people hoard because they’re fearful of “lack.’ So they collect things. I always had in the back of my mind that I might need a plastic bag, and so I never wanted to be without one. Fear.
I came back from the Camino without fear of so many things I’d been scared of before – and one of them was I no longer had a fear of “lack.” hence my not needing to collect plastic bags anymore.
If that makes sense…
🙂
As for Spain’s attitude – they’re a lot like many EU countries – in most supermarkets you either have to bring your own bags, or you have to buy them from the store. Which is great.
It won’t be long before the world gets clogged up with these stupid bags which don’t properly decompose. Why can’t our clever scientists come up with bags that do decompose and don’t impact negatively on the environment?
I guess they have, but they’re still not in common use…
Bill
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Dear Anne, you go girl!!! I admit to using a few plastic bags, but at least I collect them from the various places I volunteer, when others have left them around and not from when I shop myself, but mostly I use the canvas and other environmentally friendly bags that are handed out (my organic market is great for that!) or cheaply available in the supermarkets here in Sydney. Of course, in the vein of a hoarder that Bill used to be, I now have an impressive collection of these canvas bags, and have to admit, that I too keep, probably, a bit too many of them!!! To assuage my hoarding guilt, I do use them (instead of plastic bags) when I hand something on to others, ie books, fruit, clothes, and try not to be too strident in expressing my views of how you can be an greenie, although not all my friends might agree 🙂 I spent a few weeks a few years ago as a volunteer in a very remote, rural part of India and was horrified at not only how much plastic was used, but how easily and seemingly naturally it was discarded at the side of the road, for the freely roaming goats to ingest it all, and because there was no other way of disposting of any garbage, if it was collected at all, it would be burnt to further pollute not just the ground, but the atmosphere. It was heartbreaking enough seeing the poverty, without the environmental destruction on top of it. If I hadn’t been environmentally aware before, I certainly learnt lots then!! My daily fob to beeing an incidental greenie, is that I pick up bits of rubbish on my daily walks, again not a habit necessarily appreciated by friends, but mostly they tolerate me and my theory that if we all picked up just 3 pieces a day, the world would be a much nicer place to live!! Anyone else out there in PGS Land who has similar habits? 🙂
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Yes! I’m the same way about trash left on the roads and sidewalks. I have a cloth bag or a cardboard box ( used more for turtle transport), in the back seat of the car, and if I see a bag of trash on the country roads I’ll always pick it up. And I keep the three piece rule whenever I’m out. I can’t stand cigarette butts all over the ground, and pick them up too. Ac- tually if you put them in a large jar of water to soak, you can strain off the tobacco liquid, put it in a spray bottle and use it as a natural insecticide on your plants or garden.
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Sister –
you keep a bag for saving turtles from getting run over?
And what is the “three piece rule?”
My goodness, you make me feel so — such a bad world citizen is I guess the best way to put it!
Bill
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Bill, no -the box is for saving turtles. I live in an area on the mountain where there are a lot of freshwater marshes and lakes, and when the turtles lay their eggs they go from one location to another and back again,which means they are crossing the roads. Some of us keep an eye out for them, and when they start across , stop and pick them up,take them to the other side, and release. You need a box because turtles can carry serious bacteria on their shells.There are sick people here that like to see if they can smush turtles with their cars. The three piece rule means every time I leave the house I pick up at least three pieces of trash from the street or roadways.
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Thank you sister for saving my kin folk. In regards to picking up trash — you remind me of my neighbor, she can’t simply take a walk, she needs to pick up trash along the way. I just wish she would wear gloves, you don’t ever know what you are picking up.
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Nice picture Ingrid. You have emerged from the shadows into the light. Welcome. 🙂 Steve
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tx Steve, I a sitting on the rock, just in front of the permanent pilgrims boot at Fisterra. It had been raining on and off all morning, but the sun came out just for a short time to take wonderful pics.
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Hi Sister –
the three piece rule is fabulous.
And as for drivers smashing turtles –
yes, I can’t understand that mentality. I really can’t.
I did the same thing here not so long ago. There was a huge snake on the road – a big black snake. Very deadly.
I avoided it, luckily, but then I drove back and came around and shepherded the snake off the road so that it wasn’t run over by the next car.
My daughter was in the car at the time and she freaked out. But I didn’t want to see that snake get run over.
Bill
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Bill,
I was at Starbucks Sunday morning and my dog Bubbie spotted a mouse that appeared to be convulsing. It flipped, and convulsed and was obviously sick. After watching it for a few minutes and becoming convinced that it was going to die, I killed it. I thought it was a humane thing to do, but it still bothered me very much. After seeing my wife die in 1999 following our accident and waiting on a life flight helicopter, I swore I would never watch another creature die. I try to live by that rule today. Steve
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Steve, you did the only compassionate thing that could be done, as disturbing as it was. If you hadn’t relieved it from its suffering, it could have bitten someone, a curious, caring child bending down to see what was wrong – as hard as it must have been ,you intervened before it perhaps became life threatening for someone.You showed mercy, a rare thing, indeed. Its one of the things that makes you such a good man.
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Thank you Sister.
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Hi Steve –
I agree with Sister, although it would have been very hard to do, and very upsetting.
It would also have had a profound effect on the child – in the most instructive and beneficial way, I believe.
But then again let’s hope that in ten years time that child doesn’t walk into a In-n-Out burger joint with an AK 47, with psychologists later determining that it was all due to a childhood trauma on seeing a mouse killed…
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Jennifer once said to me that she wanted me to walk the Camino so that when I came back, she didn’t always have to apologise for me…
that latest reply might be one of those occasions…
Bill
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Had no child witnesses, and my only thought was that the mouse was in pain and anguish and I decided to accelerate the obvious for humane reasons. I still hated to do it.
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Hi Steve –
ah, I thought there was a child witness –
ok, yes – it would not have been a comfortable thing to do.
Bill
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Sister’s imagination had the mouse biting a child. That was not one of my thoughts or considerations. She is more far thinking than I. 🙂
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and me!!
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Yes, you are more far thinking than I also. 🙂
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When you live without expectation, you don’t have to be too far thinking. Has it’s virtues.
BTW, I am not a hoarder of anything and especially plastic bags. I could put most of my personal possessions in the back of my car. Some day I will replace some of them, but not this day.
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Dear,gentle Steve. It was still the right thing to do. Mercy is always the right thing to do.
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Dear Sister, SOOO very glad to hear that someone else is slightly nutty like me and ready to pick up stuff … and I don’t worry about the bachterial aspect of it, although a particular friend of mine gets mildly hysterical knowing I don’t carry gloves. My mother used to say that to stay healthy you’d need to ingest at least 7 pounds of dirt a year, and having lived by that, I hardly ever get sick!! I love that you and others keep the paraphernalia for picking up turtles in the car – a lovely picture to paint for the rest of us to see 🙂
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Bill,
In San Luis Obispo County where I live, you now bring your own bags to put your purchase in or buy a paper ones for ten cents…. that includes groceries. It has taken awhile to get use to, but it really is a wonderful thing in my opinion. San Luis Obispo was the first town in states to ban smoking in bars and restaurants also.
Congrats Bill…our environment is thanking you!!
Debbie
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Hi Debbie –
You live in a beautiful part of the world. I often used to drop in there on drives from LA up to San Francisco. Gorgeous country, and yes, that area of California has always been very environmentally aware.
Bill
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Bill, I too, have a plastic bag fetish. The only thing I can say in my defense is that I use each one until its in shreds, and then it goes to recycling. I loathe plastic coffee cups, but my personal vendetta is against packaging. Everything comes in these blister pacs. The plastic is rigid, and hard to get into. Ive cut myself on it hundreds of times. They stick this plastic eyesore on a heavy piece of toxically inked cardboard, and the whole package is at least ten times larger than it needs to be.Why is it though, that the moment I purge the bag drawers and take everything to the recycle bin,as soon as I get home I desperately need a plastic bag for something?
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Sister –
It’s even worse in Japan. They package EVERYTHING. Even your lunch from a takeaway joint is elaborately packaged.
What gets me going is that the Japanese for years have been cutting down our pristine virgin forests in Tasmania for their packaging – these trees that are hundreds of years old have been chopped down for woodchopping, that then goes to Japan to make paper and cardboard so that someone can have their sushi neatly wrapped.
It makes me want to weep…
Bill
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I know -its heartbreaking. Every time I see a magazine, or so much worse, the full colour pages of junk advertising, I see all the trees that are no longer standing, so people could glance at this printed crap, and throw it away.
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I’m the opposite – I try NOT to collect plastic bags. Years ago I turned the kids’ worn-out clothing into shopping bags to take to the supermarket (well before they shops started supplying their own reusable bags), I ask to carry my purchases and not bag them if plastic is the only option (interestingly the only store ever to refuse was an Australian-owned one – but even they have changed their policy now and went through a stage of actively encouraging you to bring your own). We used to line our kitchen rubbish bin with plastic bags, but realised if you compost all food waste there is no need for the plastic. Now our rubbish bin is an icecream container – to encourage everyone not to make waste! We do have a small stash of plastic bags and whenever it runs out (maybe once in the last ten years), I leave my own bags at home for one shopping trip and use the store ones to replenish the supply.
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That’s fabulous Rachael – every little effort from each of us helps change things.
Plastic bags are very very damaging to the environment, and totally unnecessary. Yet we have become reliant on them.
We humans are such dolts sometimes – and eventually our actions are going to come back and bite us on our bums. It’s already happening.
My stopping collecting plastic bags though wasn’t for environmental reasons, as I’ve stated in my reply back to Anne up above – but because of fear of “lack.”
I lost that fear on returning from the Camino.
Bill
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I heard your reason….just thought I’d add a story that was not too controversial for a change;-)
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Whew, now that I am on-blog again, were I live, we paid for plastic bags for a while. A few years ago, they brought in a bring your own bag policy, lots of retailers had to change their cash registers, because if you didn’t they charge you anywhere from 3 to 5 cents a bag. Then all of a sudden (consumer revolt) they lawmakers found out it might not be legal. So they decided no more paying. Now store revolt, they just had spend a good amount of money to change their hardware. To this day, one major chain has not changed their policy and the way they get around it is that they try to convince you, that money goes to charity… HA! So now, instead of plastic bags, I have hoards of cloth bags that are handed out by everyone with advertising on it, they are free, the cheap quality ones. There is never pleasing everyone, but I am glad the “plastic” bags nowadays are the kind that decompose easier. Now, if we just could get rid of the mountain of plastic waterbottles and Styrofoam cups…. Ingrid
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Ingrid, I have bought a lightweight thermocup, with lid, to take with me. Will I have any problems with the cafes along the Camino filling it for my cafe con leche? I am so opposed to styrophone or paper cups, but am not prepared to go without my much loved daily coffee.
Blessings
Anne
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Oops. Darn the predict text. That would be styrofoam cups. Sorry.
Note to self… recheck posts before submitting.
Anne
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Anne, I think that is extra baggage. You will appreciate sitting at a bar when you drink your coffee and will not find the need to carry it with you. Just my thought. Steve
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As per Steve, Anne you won’t need a thermocup. You will find that everyone sits at the bar to drink their cafe con leche. I love my coffee as well and it was a worry to me how I would get my daily fill of it. But I had no problem and it is nice to sit and watch the world go by drinking cafe con leche 🙂
Emily
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Hi Bill
I love that you lost your fear on the Camino.
I hoard. I’m trying not to. I’ve always thought it was because my parents do as they are from large families in the Depression era. They saved everything or they would do without.
What you said resonates with me. It’s fear of lacking or missing out. Maybe being the fourth child, and only girl, they had always run out by the time they got to me. 😃
I need to actively think of this now when I want to keep that little bit of junk ‘just in case’. Thank you.
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Thank you!
yes, getting rid of this fear of lack can impact positively on so many aspects of your life. Particularly lack of money.
If you can rid yourself of this fear of lack of money, what it does is free you up to think creatively, work with a light heart, and the money will then follow as a consequence.
While ever we are moribund with fear, it constricts our thinking, it affects the way we interact with people, it shuts us off from opportunities and possibilities –
It’s something I struggle with all the time -as I guess most people do – but the times when I rid myself of the fear of lack, those are the times when I find myself being the most productive.
Bill
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Hi Bill and PGS Family –
I can really relate to all the comments above, and particularly the fear of ‘lack’. Like Arlene I had supplies of canned tomatoes, beans etc, packets of pasta – you name it – all in a very small kitchen – and all taking up space.
Since returning from the Camino last year, the stocks have well and truly dried up – all that ‘stuff’ sitting waiting for me to do something with it, ageing by the day, and eventually being eaten, started to be so vexatious to me that I had to stop. The same thing happened to the freezer … bare now … and if someone drops in unexpectedly and needs something to eat, I make a really awesome toasted cheese and tomato sandwich! Cheers – Jenny
PS – I will admit to hoarding three peppermint Magnums in the freezer though …
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Hi jenny –
3 peppermint magnums isn’t hoarding –
I bet they don’t stay there long!!
Bill
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Hi Bill – you’re not wrong there! In our household there’s me, husband Steve, and one gremlin (the gremlin’s Steve!) … that’s why we always have to have at least three of anything with a Magnum wrapper! Cheers – Jenny
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haha – thought there was something more behind it!!
Bill
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Oh my gosh….this made me crack up.
I hate plastic bags……my nana loves them and would drive me nuts with the constant shuffling of things between one bag to the next…then knotting them..un knotting them. I once cleaned out her art room for her and found 1000’s and 1000’s!
I’m laughing because….I have become obsessed with zip lock bags for my Camino Bag. Because they are see through and water proof and easy to open and close.
I was at the supermarket last night standing in front of them…. going “maybe I just need another pack of 16……yeah….just one more pack will do.” My fingers twitched…I tapped the box and then willed myself to walk away. I did……but they are still on my mental “things still to get” list. I really hope this isn’t the start of some genetic pre-disposition towards bags. :0)
Proud of you Bill though.
Oh and 7 sleeps to go :-)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Abbey –
Only 7 sleeps to go….
aaaaah.
So close!
Yes, I was a bit of a sucker for zip locks too. They are handy. I kept a whole lot of stuff in various ones –
But they do add up in weight – and you can get them in Spain if you run short!!
They are very tempting though – they are the creme de la creme of plastic bags!
Bill
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I don’t throw away empty plastic bags — but I’ve certainly taught myself not to collect any unless I need them !!!
I find that keeping your plastic bags in a special plastic bag that you only use to keep plastic bags in is useful, bizarre at that may sound — when the plastic bag is full of plastic bags, stop collecting any more !!! When it’s getting empty, that means you’re running out of rubbish bags and should advise.
Keeping the plastic bag for your plastic bags somewhere in plain sight is also useful, as a visual reminder of how many (or how few) you already have.
If your plastic bag starts to overflow with plastic bags, that’s a good time to remind yourself to stop being an idiot.
Hope that helps.
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I’m like you Julian, I used to keep all my plastic bags in plastic bags.
The more plastic bags I collected, the more plastic bags I needed to hold them!
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I only have one, and it’s looking pretty empty right now …
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Bill, I have a dear friend who made a strange little cloth bag to hold her plastic ones. She has it hung on a nail above her kitchen bin. There’s a hole made in the bottom, so you put bags in at the top, and when you need a new bin liner,pull one at a time out through the bottom.Its ingenious. But I thinkif I had one it would make the problem worse – Id just keep getting more of the cloth keeper bags to fill, and end up with two problems instead of one. My hoarding habit started when I had the farm and no car. In winter, the eleven miles to town is daunting, so I started to collect stuff because it was so hard to get something I didn’t have.
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Sister –
that sounds like a mighty fine idea!
But yes, I’d then be tempted to hoard the cloth bags!
Bill
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Anne, no worries there. I never got café con leche served in a Styrofoam cup… but that lightweight thermos was part of my ‘luxury’ items I carried to take hot water for my inevitable tea ceremony break.
Abbey you must have butterflies by now, I always get them about a week prior to travelling.
To while the time away, PGS family (I like that name) turn your eyes to the heavens August 10-13 to see the stars dancing… the Perseid meteor showers visible on the Northern Hemisphere.
Also,I believe new moon is happening now, best time to go star gazing. Last September walking out of Los Arcos, I truly walked under the milky way and was able to see deep space, just with my eyes. It was glorious. Wondering how beautiful New Moon and clear skies would be on the Meseta.
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Ingrid, thank you so much for the thoughtful reminder. I love the Perseid showers. One year I saw 40 in one hour.
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Dear Ingrid, before I properly read your post, I got really excited thinking I could see this ‘shower’ REALLY well, as in a couple of days I’m off on a trip to the Australian outback with, as our guide, no less than the state astronomer (Fred Watson to those in the know here in NSW) … but of course the Northern Hemisphere being the operative words, the Perseid showers would be no use to me at all, no matter who my guide is on the trip … darn!! Mind you, will ask Fred what he thinks of them, as I’m sure he’d be familiar with them despite working in the wrong hemisphere 🙂 Britta
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Britta, how wonderful for you to be travelling with Fred Watson. What a special treat. Where are you going? How long will you be away? I love listening to Fred on the radio. Last year when the terrible fires came so close to destroying Siding Springs, I remember listening to him describe the events, impact and future. He is amazing. Enjoy every moment of your trip.
Blessings
Anne
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Thanks Ingrid. So pleased to know that the styrofoam cups are not part of the daily ritual on the Camino.
I live in a beautiful part of the coast, six hours south of Sydney, where clear night skies are just part of what we enjoy. I often look to the heavens and marvel at the beauty of the universe. I look forward to walking under the Milky Way but I will truly miss the Southern Cross, which is always present for us.
Six weeks to go!
Blessings
Anne
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