Free showing of full-length feature “Bag It” at the Loft Cinema on Sat. Feb. 18 at 10 a.m. sponsored by Sierra Club – Rincon Group and Coalition for Sonoran Desert Protection. The Loft is at 3233 E. Speedway.

Americans use 60,000 plastic bags every five minutes, disposable bags that they throw away without much thought. But where is “away?” Where do the bags and other plastics end up, and at what cost to the environment, marine life and human health?

Bag It follows “everyman” Jeb Berrier as he navigates our plastic world. Jeb is an average American who decides to take a closer look at our cultural love affair with plastics. Jeb’s journey in this documentary film starts with simple questions: Are plastic bags really necessary? What are plastic bags made from? What happens to plastic bags after they are discarded? What he learns quickly grows far beyond plastic bags.

Bag It makes it clear that it is time for a paradigm shift. Join Jeb as he meets with people who fought the American Chemistry Council lobby that spent more than a million dollars fighting the Seattle bag fee; as he interviews a man sailing the Pacific in a boat made of plastic to raise awareness about our ocean’s health; as he gets tested to determine the levels of chemicals in his own body; and as he welcomes his baby into the world, a world he hopes we can leave with a little less plastic and in a little better shape for the next generation.

“Think about it—why would you make something that you’re going to use for a few minutes out of a material that’s basically going to last forever, and you’re just going to throw it away? What’s up with that?” — Jeb Berrier

Back on the Big Island of Hawaii, one of the larger supermarkets ((KTA) discourages plastic bag use, and credits each customer 5 cents for providing their own shopping bag to carry their groceries home. And in Europe people do tend to bring their own bags to shop with, and seem to rely less on plastic bags.

Per Gabe Wigtil, program & outreach associate for the Coalition for Sonoran Desert Protection:

“On February 28th the Tucson Mayor and Council will be holding a study session discussion on how to reduce single-use bag consumption in the city. This film event will feature a Call-to-Action for participants to encourage our community leaders to legislate the consumption of fewer disposable bags. That the City of Tucson is discussing the possibility of such a forward-thinking measure presents a great opportunity for this community to combat a major environmental problem.”

Watch the move trailer from the Loft website (click here), which reminded me of how much plastic is in our lives.

So think about this movie when you’re in the grocery line, and the clerk asks you “Paper or plastic?” and you say “Neither, I brought my own bag.”

And then you say “Bag it!”

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 16th, 2012 at 2:04 pm and is filed under Arts, Life, Politics. Tags for this post: American Chemistry Council lobby, Bag It, Coaltion for Sonoran Desert Protection, Gabe Wigtil, Jeb Berrier, KTA Supermarket, Loft Theatre, plastic bags, Tucson City Council. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.