In 2010, Susan Beraza and Jeb Barrier created the educational environmental film “Bag It”. “Bag It” looks into the industry of plastic and how much plastic our society uses every day. It is filmed in the hometown of it’s creators, Telluride, Colorado. “Bag It” was released in the spring and summer of 2010 and has been a significant catalyst for cities all across America to campaign for the banning of plastic bags and to lessen the overall usage of plastic in their lives.
The film does not just cover the subject of plastic bags, it also looks deeply into how many products today are actually made of plastic and how reliant our society has become on it. The film challenges you to look around your immediate environment to observe how many every day items we use are made with plastic. As I am looking around my immediate environment, my office space, I am having a difficult time finding an item that is not made of plastic. Phew, I found a penny under some shelves…..success.
In the United States, an estimated 12 million barrels of oil are used annually to make the plastic bags that Americans consume. That number is just for plastic bags, not all of the other every day items we purchase that use plastic. The United States International Trade Commission reported that 102 billion plastic bags were used in the U.S. in 2009. The oil industry likes everyone using plastic.
In spite of the money and obstacles that big oil companies spend on keeping environmentalists quiet, cities across America are meeting with City Council members to ban the use of plastic bags that are handed out by retailers. More and more cities are becoming proponents of custom reusable bags as just one small way to make a difference. Reusable shopping bags, stainless steel water bottles, even using organic beauty products, are some of the ways the film “Bag It” asks you to reduce your usage of plastic.
For more information about this film, and how you can view it, go to Bag It.
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