Plastic bags. Billions of the handy throwaway items are used around the world every year. They take hundreds of years to biodegrade and have sparked heated debates in cities from San Francisco to Mumbai.
This documentary gets a handle on the bag battle. From the big oil employees who brought the bag to America - to the Nobel laureate fighting for a bag ban - to the retired German schoolteacher who holds the world's record for the most plastic bags, the film takes stock of this icon of convenience culture.
EXCERPTS FROM THE FILM
Heinz Schmidt-Bachem began collecting plastic bags in the 1970's when Germany was thinking of banning the plastic bag for environmental reasons. He now has the largest collection of plastic bags in the world, locked away in a former bomb shelter in Duren, Germany. Watch
Thin plastic shopping bags were banned in Mumbai after they were blamed for clogging drains and sewers during deadly floods a few years ago. Those caught doling out plastic bag contraband are dealt a hefty fine – about $600. See the plastic bag police squad in action. Watch
When Rebecca Hosking, a wildlife camerawoman for the BBC, filmed a documentary in Hawaii, she witnessed beaches that were covered entirely by plastic waste and sea birds and turtles that were dead or dying from ingesting the plastic. She battled to make a difference in her home town, Morburg, which was the first in Europe to go plastic bag free. Watch
See more fun archival footage about plastics to the right.
Trouble Watching the Video?
All video is available for STREAMING only in the Windows Media format. Please download the player here.
FOR EDUCATORS
DID YOU KNOW?
- Canadians use about 6 billion plastic bags a year
- The plastic bag manufacturing business employs 7,000 people in Canada
- Before a bag as such was invented, people carried their goods in found objects including gourds, animal horns and bull scrotums
- The raw material for plastic bags is oil, or natural gas
- Plastic bags generally take 400-1,000 years to decompose
- Sea turtles often mistake plastic bag litter in the oceans for jellyfish
- Nicknames for the plastic bag: witches britches (USA), witches knickers (Ireland), the national flag (Ireland), a curse that's blowing in the wind (Kenya), the national flower (Kenya and South Africa, modern tumbleweed, snowbirds (Alaska), white pollution
- Plastic bags can be recycled into plastic wood, used for decking, siding, park benches, among other things
- The average plastic bag weighs six or seven grams but can carry 6.5 kilograms