"Here's your roast chicken in a bag"

Some of us claim to be very much in favor of new materials that will save the oceans, reduce plastic waste, and so on. But change our beloved straws or coffee lids and we are less enthusiastic. The packaging of food products is important, not only in terms of functionality, but also in terms of product perception. Take Canadian milk, often sold in bags. Ewwww, bag of milks, no? It is upsetting our expectations for a common product, and it worries us more than it should. Now, take the case of a new food package that actually arrives in American grocery stores: Whole Foods roasted chicken in bags.

The grocery chain has announced that it is abandoning double-shelled roast chicken wrappers for the benefit of the bags, which use 70% less plastic. (We're guessing they look like this.) The Wegman grocery chain has already done this exchange.

In addition, by July, Whole Foods will use plastic straws for paper straws "with ice-cold or on-demand beverages" in its coffee shops, juice bars and coffee shops. It will keep plastic straws for customers with disabilities. Whole Foods has already reduced the size of its plastic bags. The company says that chicken bags, smaller product bags and paper straws will save about 800,000 pounds of plastic a year.

It seems good for us. Maintaining the plastic straw option for disabled customers is one of the major problems of the ban on plastic straws. Who really cares whether a roasting chicken comes in a shell or a bag? In fact, with roast chicken shells, I think not only are they not recyclable in some places, but they take up a lot of space in the trash. Bring the bags, I say. Your move, Costco.