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It came from the mall

Bag Monsters to educate shoppers on evils of plastic bags

Posted by Holly Richmond at 5:02 PM on 15 Apr 2008

Read more about: shopping | consumerism | green living | waste

Lunchtime shoppers, beware: if you're toting your purchases in a plastic bag in one of twelve cities tomorrow, you might encounter a Bag Monster.

From your worst shopping-related nightmares the "you can't make this stuff up" file comes a creation of cosmetics company Lush to support the ban of plastic bags and to raise awareness of their wastefulness. "Each bag monster, which resembles a walking, talking trash heap, is made of 350 plastic bags -- the amount of bags an average family of four will use in just four months," announces the press release.

In addition to scaring unsuspecting plastic bag hags, more benign protesters will distribute educational material. Lush will also provide interested shoppers with a free, reusable tote. "Tote bags can be sturdy, stylish, and last longer than most relationships," observed Lush North America CEO Mark Wolverton in an April press release.

Seattle didn't make the cut, but be on the lookout for the Bag Monster if you're a mall-crawler in NYC, LA, Carmel, Pasadena, Aspen, Boulder, Chicago, New Orleans, Boston, Portland, Philadelphia, or Washington, D.C.

Priorities

Landfill space is really the least of our worries when it comes to environmental problems. As such, it seems that the biggest issue with plastic bags is making sure they end up being properly disposed of.

Incidentally, most kind of plastics never biodegrade, they just get physically broken into microscopic pieces. Those are still a threat to tiny organisms, if they are out in the environment.

a sibilant intake of breath

Other problems...

...don't forget that plastic bags are made from petrol-based chemicals, so they do contribute in that respect.  It also takes much more energy to produce the billions upon billions of plastic bags than it does to produce reusable bags.

Also, check out your local stores for deals on bags on Earth Day.  I know both Kroger and HEB are doin' promotions that give away free reusable bags.

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