A food market in Amsterdam announced a special aisle in its store that will contain exactly zero plastic packaging. The global epidemic of plastic pollution of our oceans and lands has spurred an effort to reduce our use of unnecessary plastic wrapping in our daily lives.
However, this reporter recently discovered a market in Nepal that has done without any plastic packaging for a thousand years or more. Fruits and vegetables are laid out in colorful piles on the bare ground and plucked and gutted chickens are hung on iron hooks attached to a wooden stall. The market customers are free to examine them for freshness and ripeness.
The customers are not especially concerned with the swarming flies, fruitbats, or the occasional rat running over their toes. Once again, we discover that the old ways are sometimes the best ways.
