The Great Plastic Purge

Ask my kids (definitely my "at home" ones...and possibly even my "at school" ones), and they'll tell you because they know:  I HATE packaging. Always have. That probably is one of my greatest environmental pet peeves:  packaging and PLASTIC.

You name it:  The weird little ties that lock every little piece of every toy to the cardboard box. The plastic-encased items that you just about need a chainsaw to get into.  The plastic wrapped in plastic wrapped in plastic. Ugh. I especially despise the "designed for waste" varieties--like plastic bags. It's gotten to where my seven year old will often tell the store clerks "Oh, we don't need a bag" if we're purchasing only a few items.  He's just as happy to carry them out by hand.

One of my favorite and newest "foods for thought" on the plastic waste commentary is the video "The Great Plastic Purge."  The folks over at National Resource Defense Council (NRDC) got together with design studio leftchannel to create this PSA about marine plastic pollution.  It details how plastic is pervasive, and disposal is an environmental problem and an economic problem.


The Great Plastic Purge from leftchannel on Vimeo.

It's not new news that many communities have begun plastic bag bans, and they've been spreading like wildfire. (Los Angeles, most recently on June 13, 2013 jumped on board--an impressive coup for banning communities as LA is the 2nd largest US city!)  Images like this one below help prove the point and showcase the need.  This photo was shared on the Bag It Facebook page to help promote Bring Your Bag Chicago at this weekend's Figment Arts Festival in Chicago.  This picture is a part of the total image of the 2568 plastic shopping bags that Chicago shoppers use in only 1 minute. 

Multiply THAT out exponentially!!!

If that image doesn't cause you to stop and take pause, I'm not sure what will!  Clearly, there's we have an environmental problem that needs to be addressed.  If only that were the only one!


Video from https://vimeo.com/60275326  as seen on https://www.facebook.com/plastiki?hc_location=stream

"Trekking Trash" photo from https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=695026597178047&set=a.306990879314956.91502.162940670386645&type=1&theater

Chicago's 2568 bags photo from https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=535972873139751&set=a.386863611384012.89631.384492191621154&type=1&theater as seen on Bag It's FB page.