How-to: Make Mall Visits Greener

So the thing about being girls is this: we’re probably always going to be interested in going to a mall or shopping for a new shirt sometimes.  It’s just part of who we are.

Unfortunately, we seem to come home with a lot more than just that shirt.  I don’t mean the pants and purse and four other shirts.  I mean the trash.  The bags, the tags, the tissues, the lack of reuse…  You’re thinking I’m going to bust out in rap with all these rhymes, but I’m just trying to cut down on all the unnecessary stuff that comes with a shopping trip.  Here are four things I try to avoid:


1. The pretty tissue paper to protect your purchases

It’s one thing to get a glass wrapped in tissue paper; it’s an entirely different thing to have a pair of jeans wrapped in tissues.  I know it looks pretty.  I just don’t see the point.  I’m going to go home, tear off the tissue, and throw it away.  We have more tissue paper ready for future gift giving than we can handle, so I always tell the clerks to skip the paper for me.  (They think I’m crazy.)

mall-shopping-bag

2. A new detailed bag from every store

Every store loves to free advertisements cruising around the mall, so they’re quick to offer bags that says “Macy’s” or “H&M” with big exclamation marks.  (Even stores in German malls offer bags for free.)  I’m not going to be able to reuse a lot of their bags, so I ask the clerks to put items in my bag from the last store or one from home.  To accomplish this in a foreign language like German, either move quickly and grab your item before the clerk can bag it or wave your hands frantically, point at the bag, and say, “Nein!  No!” like a total looney because you can’t remember that the word for bag is Tüte.


3. The scramble for the primo parking spot

In the US, I watch people drive and drive and wait for others to leave when they find the perfect, close spot.  Why not just park in the back of the lot, save the fuel, and enjoy a little air every once and a while?  (It’s always easier to find your car when you’re the only one at the back of the lot.)

mall_parking_lot

4. The poofy styrofoam containers at lunch

When we’ve gone to the food court, I think that Martin and I have based our decisions half on what was available to eat and half on how the business was going to package our food.  If a store puts their pizza on a styrofoam plate, I don’t want it.  That plate will take thousands of years to break down, and let’s face it, no pizza is THAT good, especially in a food court.  Needless to say, because of our huge opposition to styrofoam, we don’t really eat anything in US food courts.

 

So buy the shirt if you want.  Just think about the extras that come with it on that trip.  Won’t you pretty please?

And now it’s your turn.  Anyone else do these types of things?  Would you be willing to?  We’d love any tips in the comments that you’ve got for less waste, too!  We eat it up, you know.

(Images from picapp and telenav)