“BAG IT : How did we get so wrapped up in plastic?”

July 13, ’12 - social time, 6:30 (snacks welcome), program, 7:00

This prizewinning, 78-minute documentary follows an average American guy as he explores our love affair with plastics. Are plastic bags really necessary? What are they made from? What happens when they're discarded? The film, sobering, yet often light-hearted, reveals that the average American uses 500 plastic bags a year, for an average of 12 minutes each. Fourteen million pounds of waste ends up in the ocean each year. The floating island of debris swirling in the North Pacific Gyre is more than twice the size of Texas. What can we do? Ireland reduced bag use by 90% by instituting a fee for single-use bags. In 2008, China banned "ultra-thin" bags, keeping 40 million out of stores the first year alone.