Plastic Bags

when you go to the grocery store in estonia, if you want a bag to carry your purchases home you have to pay for it. it's not very expensive, 1 to 3 kroons (9-27 cents each), but it encourages customers to bring their own bags which promotes recycling and is a good thing. what i didn't expect to find is that this practice has led to certain plastic bags becoming more desirable than others. in fact at tallinn's balti jam (train station) there is a plastic bag stand. there are a variety of available sizes and designs ranging from plain, solid colors for 1 kroon to colorful, holiday scenes for up to 5 kroons. as you can see from the above photo, this stand is quite popular.