Plastic Bag Backlash
A friend of mine recently unveiled an exhibit at UC Davis about plastic bags. One artistic piece is a "tornado" of about 1,000 bags, which, she says, is what an average family used in just one year. Another piece is actually a disturbing find: a solidified mass found inside a dead camel in the middle east. Apparently, a veterinarian in Dubai is finding camels, sheep and goats keeled over after consuming the floating refuse. And it might not just be happening there. The artist, Ann Savageau (UCD Associate Professor of Design) says a landfill supervisor told her he's spotted cows in California eating plastic bags. Apparently, the bags often escape from landfills and are caught by the breeze and end up stuck in brush and vegetation.
A more uplifting part of Ann's project: chic ready-to-wear bags created from recycled materials. For every one she and her students made, another was sent to someone overseas. "Bags Across the Globe" is the title of that part of the installation. But now the reach of Ann's project has prompted action within her own community. A local activist who saw the exhibit told her it inspired her to push for a plastic bag ban city-wide.
According to the Davis Enterprise, as of right now, the city's Natural Resources Commission Zero-Waste Committee plans to consider the idea later in March (the City Council would also need to approve it). If approved, the ban would begin January 1, 2012. Retailers and grocers would carry no plastic bags, offer paper bags for 25 cents and/or offer reusable bags either for sale or as a free giveaway. Some exemptions are being considered.
Interestingly, there's already a backlash on the paper's website. I've blogged about this general idea before, and once again the controversy seems to focus on personal choice and freedom potentially being taken away. Of course, in the last election, voters turned down a proposed statewide plastic bag ban. But it will be fascinating to see what happens in a city with a zero-waste movement and official goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050. And I, for one, will be watching closely to see if art actually can inspire action. The exhibit was intended to do something like that. On the UC Davis Design Museum website, it explains this is "a global collaborative piece, or what contemporary artist-activists call an intervention". Now we see how that idea works. The exhibit ends on March 11th.
p.s. For more about the artist's (and activists') argument for a bag ban, read this
