Bag It, a documentary produced and directed by Suzan Beraza, depicts Americans’ single-use consumption obsession of plastic bottles, plastic bags and to-go cups.
The film follows Telluride (Colorado) resident Jeb Berrier’s personal quest to learn more about the effects plastic consumption has on the environment and our health. It is an eye-opening glimpse into the usage of plastic and a wake-up call for how reckless its consumption is.
The ultimate question the movie raises: How does the brief usage of a disposable product that lasts forever make sense?
Bag It goes beyond plastic bags to wage war against disposable bottled water. The film’s participants point out the insanity of shipping tap water from the Alps to L.A. and from Fiji to Miami.
A poignant part of the film is how marine life is affected by plastic consuption and disposal. It demonstrates the things we’ve been talking about for a long time in our blogs. Beraza created the film in 2008 after Aspen and Telluride had a three-month-long challenge to see which community could reduce their plastic bag consumption more. Telluride won—its residents used 29,351 reusable bags at local grocery stores, compared to 26,793 bags used by Aspen residents.
Telluride’s ordinance banning the single-use plastic bag went into effect March 1. The ordinance includes charging consumers a 10-cent fee for paper bags at grocery stores, but any retailer in town can voluntarily opt into the fee program, retaining 5 cents of the fee to cover administrative costs. Aspen is currently considering placing a fee on plastic bags.
To learn more, view trailers, or see when the film is coming to your area, visit http://www.bagitmovie.com/
