Bag It - Just Say No, This is Your Brain on Plastic

On Sunday August 22, 2010 from 4-7pm The UCLA Institute of Environmental Studies hosted a screening of the film "Bag It!" by Suzan Beraza and a short film called "Plastic Bag" by Ramin Bahrani. There also was panel discussion with Heal The Bay, Plastic Pollution Coalition and The Daily Ocean along with a talk by Assembly member Julia Brownley regarding plastic pollution and bill AB 1998 (authored by Brownley) which will ban the use of single use plastic bags in the state of California. AB 1998 has already been voted in favor by the state assembly and is being voted on in the California State Senate in this week. Please do your part by supporting this bill, links will be provided below where you can take action!

Assembly Julia Brownley discussing AB 1998

Still from Brownley's presentation, an ad campaign by the American Chemistry Council which is lobbying against AB 1998.

This is Suzan Beraza, Director of Bag It! This documentary was awesome, clever, thoughtful and full of information! It is a fantastic film and a great way to get ANYBODY thinking about how our use of plastic is detrimental to the well being of the planet and all life on it. It shows with candor and humor the environmental and health problems we are facing with use of disposable plastic while providing solutions. It is a must see for EVERYBODY. Thank you Suzan Bereza for making this important film, I am grateful for the likes of you!

http://www.bagitmovie.com/about_issues.html

Still from Ramin Bahrani's 18 minute short film "Plastic Bag". This touching short shows the personal story of a plastic bag as it finds a home and searches for love and acceptance until it finds it's place of comfort with other plastic bags living in the ocean.

Another still from Bahrani's "Plastic Bag".
Panelists including speakers from Heal The Bay, The Daily Ocean and Plastic Pollution Coalition in support of AB 1998. Sara Bayles (in white shirt) lives in Santa Monica and collects trash on the ocean everyday for twenty minutes. She is documenting the trash....here is her blog: http://www.thedailyocean.blogspot.com/

This was a great afternoon. I consider myself in the know of issues surrounding plastic, but even I found myself with a gaping mouth and shaking my head from time to time with some of the statistics I learned about. I have posted about AB 1998 earlier along with the Los Angeles River riddled with plastic bags after the rains. It is horrifying when you see the amount of plastic in the River, especially if you participate in FoLAR's river clean up's. FoLAR has been an incredible organization advocating for the Los Angeles River and the environment.

AB1998 has already received California State Assembly support and is being voted on by the California State Senate this week! It is imperative that this bill passes. Please contact your Senator immediately to support this bill which can reduce plastic waste by one third, simply by taking a bag with you to the store. We can greatly change things sometimes by not doing something...and that means not relying on disposable plastic! Here is a link to take action:
http://www.healthebay.org/actionalerts/ab1998/default.asp