purpose
in the bag:
the art & politics of the reusable bag movement
the problem facing our environment: The world uses over 1.2 trillion plastic bags a year. That averages about 300 bags for each adult on the planet. That comes out to over one million bags being used per minute. On average we use each plastic bag for approximately 12 minutes before disposing. It then lasts in the environment for decades. Plastic bags, as with all forms of plastic, do not biodegrade. They photo-degrade, breaking down into smaller and smaller toxic bits contaminating soil, waterways, oceans and entering the food web when ingested by animals.
For the past ten years there has been a growing concern about the effects of plastic shopping bags on our environment. Introduced in the US in the late 1970's as a convenience for grocery shoppers, free plastic shopping bags quickly became the standard for retailers. At the time, no one considered the long-term consequences of our infatuation with this cheap, easily accessible, environmentally devastating product. Now, some 30 years later, the results of our overuse of plastic bags is clear. Plastic bags, which take several lifetimes to degrade, are overflowing landfills, polluting our oceans and waterways, and posing an ongoing threat to marine life. Communities across the United States have responded, joining cities and towns in 33 countries around the world concerned with the effects of plastic bag litter and the hazards it poses to our environment. The movement to ban plastic bags is a story of the power of individuals to make changes in their communities.
In the bag traces the beginnings of the ReUsable Bag Movement and presents the growth of creative alternatives to plastic. Featuring a selection of colorful reusable bags made from billboards, juice boxes, rice bags and discarded plastic, the exhibition aims to introduce grass roots recycling movements sprouting up in small resourceful communities in the Philippines, Cambodia, India, and Africa, among others. The exhibition also highlights the work of contemporary artists employing reusable processes and exploring the iconic and physical characteristics of plastic as a medium.
"Going plastic bag free has been great for our business and great for our town. It has really bound the community together and united us with this common goal. We are all now seeing how small changes to our habits can have a big impact on our local environment, and a huge impact on all the people who see what we have done down here. Our customers and our staff love us not using plastic bags anymore. We have sent out bags to people in New Zealand the United Kingdom and the United States who have written to us wanting to know more about what we are doing to protect this amazing part of the world."
- Ben Kearney, initiator of Australia's first plastic bag free town
Four communities making a difference:
Ben Kearney - Coles Bay, Tasmania
In April 2003, the tiny Australian community of Coles Bay, Tasmania, with 200 residents and an annual influx of 200,000 tourists, became the first place on earth to officially ban plastic check-out shopping bags. Led by local bakery owner Ben Kearney, Coles Bay's four retailers worked with the environmental group Planet Ark to bring about the ban & create reusable cloth & strong paper bags to help protect whales annually migrating along Tasmania's eastern seaboard. Within the ban's first year, their efforts stopped the use of an estimated 350,000 plastic check-out bags. Other communities in Australia followed suit, and Coles Bay was awarded the Environmental Excellence Award by the Tasmanian Government.
Rebecca Hoskins - Modbury, England
In April 2007, the small seaside town of Modbury, England, became the first place in Europe to ban plastic check-out bags. About 13 billion plastic bags were given away annually in Britain, of which eight billion ended up in landfills, with many others blown out to sea. After visiting Hawaii and witnessing hundreds of albatross chicks dying from swallowing plastic debris floating on the seas, Modbury filmmaker and passionate conservationist Rebecca Hoskins made a documentary for the BBC called Message in the Waves. After previewing the program, Modbury's retailers were so shocked that they decided to ban plastic shopping bags. To see clips from Message in the Waves, go to www.messageinthewaves.org. To learn more about Modbury's ban, go to www.plasticbagfree.com.
Heather Riley - Paia, Hawaii
Avid windsurfer Heather Riley had long witnessed firsthand the devastating effects of plastic detritus in the oceans, killing waterfowl and marine animals and littering coastal landscapes. After seeing Rebecca Hoskins' Message in the Waves and the success of the movement in England, she decided to take action herself. She pitched her plastic-free ideas to local merchants in mid-2007 and more than ninety-three of them voluntarily followed her lead. As a result, an estimated 468,000 plastic bags have since been kept out of the oceans, trees, and landfills annually. Additionally, the Paia initiative has inspired the entire island of Maui (where Paia is located) to officially ban disposable plastic bags, effective January 2011. To learn more about Paia's plastic-bag-free movement, go to www.NoMoPlasticBag.com.
Jonathan Cunitz, Liz Milwe, Gene Seidman, Jeffrey Wieser
RTM District 4 - Westport, Connecticut
In 2008, Don Wergeles and Mel Sorcher, two residents of Westport, CT, went to their Representative Town Meeting (RTM) members and proposed the idea of banning the use of plastic retail checkout bags locally. After months of research and meetings with town leaders, merchants, students and residents, RTM members Jonathan Cunitz, Liz Milwe, Gene Seidman and Jeffrey Weiser succeeded in generating overwhelming support for an ordinance banning plastic checkout bags, earning the four representatives a 2009 EPA Environmental Merit Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Westport has now become one of the first communities east of California to pass a ban on retail checkout bags and has triggered a town-wide effort to provide new leadership and solutions to protect the environment. The towns efforts were the inspiration for this show about the art and politics of the reusable bag movement.
