Andy Keller, is a man after the tree huggers heart. Andy is the founder of the reusable bag "Chico Bag, Bag Monster", and he is also the creator of "Bag Monster". His "Bag Monster", is a design of 500 plastic bags, stitched together, and worn all over his body, as a representation of the amount of plastic bags used by the average consumer yearly.
Andy's website informs us, the United States, consumes 102 billion plastic bags a year. This amount of bags, uses 12 million barrels of oil to produce. The site also said that if everyone in the world, tied their year's worth of plastic bags together, the bags would stretch around our planet 760 times. Researchers also fear, the bags never go away, instead they only break down into smaller pieces of plastic, and even this process takes hundreds of years.
The recycling rates on the plastic bags is a problem. According to a study, only 5.4% of plastic bags, actually got recycled. This is due to the paper thin plastic used, jams up the recycling mechanisms. Economically, recycling the bags is costly at $4000, to process and recycle 1 ton which can be sold at commodities market for $32.
The problem bags, have been banned in China, and many other countries due to ongoing problems of litter, killing wildlife and even clogging sewer systems. In Bangladesh, they banned the bags, after the bags were tied to two separate floods, clogging their sewer systems. In Africa, they banned the bags in 2003. African retailers, faced large fines, and even jail time, for violation of the law. In 2005, Wangari Mathaai, received the Nobel Peace Prize, after he linked the plastic bag littering problem, with malaria (the littered bags fill with standing water/breeding grounds). India banned the bags in 2003, after the bags clogged sewer systems and flooded their streets.
Here in the States, this plastic consumption is out of control, and the plastics industry has bumped up their lobbying efforts to stop any "anti-bag" measures. In Rolling Stone, Amy Westervelt-founder editor of " Plastic Free Times" says "they're using the same underhanded tactics-and even using the same lobbying firm that Philip Morris started and bankrolled in the Nineties. Their sole aim is to maintain the status quo and protect their profits. They will stop at nothing to suppress or discredit science that clearly links chemicals in plastic to negative impacts on human, animal and environmental health." This is an example of the big oil industries corruption and greed at it's finest!
Since the petroleum industries love to have such a stranglehold on our legislative process, this battle will have to be fought by the people alone. In the United States, over 200 anti-bag measures have been taken in towns small and large. Reusable shopping bags, have become the norm for many towns, where you will not see plastic bags being used by any retailers.
For Andy Keller, his life was forever changed, when he visited his local landfill, and seen the overwhelming amount of plastic bags. Keller has since traveled around the country in his plastic bag suit, informing people of the dangers of plastic bag use.
While it is easier to take a bag for a small item without thinking from your checker at your grocer, it is just as easy, to refuse the bag. Reusable bags are sold nearly everywhere now, and cost next to nothing to buy. Why not buy the reusable bags for your groceries or goods, and give your children and grandchildren, a chance to enjoy life on this planet. Too much laxed attitude in our country, may leave little or nothing, for our future generations.
We only have one planet….and get up, stand up, but please do something!
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