Award-winning documentary Bag It comes to Port Aransas
Green Team Members of the University of Texas Marine Science Institute are hosting a screening of the new, award-winning environmental documentary Bag It at the Marine Science Institute Auditorium on Thursday, December 6th, at 7:00 PM.
Bag It follows “everyman” Jeb Berrier as he tries to make sense of our dependence on plastic bags. Although his quest starts out small, Jeb soon learns that the problem extends past landfills to oceans, rivers and ultimately human health.
The average American uses about 500 plastic bags each year, for about twelve minutes each. This single-use mentality has led to the formation of a floating island of plastic debris in the Pacific Ocean more than twice the size of Texas.
The film explores these issues and identifies how our daily reliance on plastic threatens not only waterways and marine life, but human health, too. Two of the most common plastic additives are endocrine disruptors, which have been shown to link to cancer, diabetes, autism, attention deficit disorder, obesity and infertility.
The screening at UTMSI is part of Bag It’s campaign to urge 25 towns across the country to become “Bag It Towns” by the end of 2013. Doing so would require Port Aransas to ban plastic bag use voluntarily or via ordinance and/or to pass an ordinance that places a small charge on single-use disposable bags. Cities including Washington, DC and San Francisco, as well as Ireland, Italy and China have already implemented similar policies to curb their plastic use.
UTMSI Green Team recognizes the importance of reducing single-use plastic use for the safety of our community and environment.
