Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Bag It: our life is too plastic

by Irene Gozellino

It´s a big fortune that the Pacific Ocean is the biggest Ocean on Earth. It´s a big fortune that it covers about 46% of the Earth's water surface and about one-third of its total surface area. Otherwise where can we put the Great Pacific Garbage Patch? Also described as the Pacific Trash Vortex, is a gyre of marine litter in the central North Pacific Ocean. Recent research suggests the affected area may be twice the size of Texas, and is characterized by exceptionally high concentrations of pelagic plastics.

This is one of the tragic realities that are drived Suzan Beraza, director, and Jeb Berrier, central figure, to shoot “Bag It – Is your life too plastic?

Bag It is a documentary: its protagonist is Jeff and his daily relationship with plastic. The educational impact of the documentary, with its technical quality, is based on the fact that Jeff defines himself like a common man with a common sense of environment; a man that turns off the light if nobody is in the room, that uses the bicycle for short distance etc. We can all identify with Jeff.

Jeff tells, in the Bag It - blog, his schock and amazement knowing the enormous use of plastic bags in his country, the USA. During the filming, Jeff and his wife discovered to be expecting a baby, so the fear about the future makes the documentary more inspiring.

Bag It, after winnings of a dozen of prizes, became a permanent campaign: the Bag It site, really good made and captivating, offers tool kits with, step by step, all the instructions to become a Bag It town or a Bag It school, or to organize a public projection. For every problem connected to plastic, useful links are signalized.

The online shop offers dvd of the documentary, reusable bags and canteens (never again plastic bottles...only tap water).

Otherwise Bag It is really funny; it makes entertainement about one of ours many addictions: we bag everything. We bag a single apple, we bag a coat. We bag even the sea.

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