Ban the Bag Salem

   
Yeah, I’ve made my fair share of upcycled artwork from plastic bags. This trashion dress “Waves of Kanagawa” was made from plastic bags and chicken feed bags. The large puppet “Bag Dragon” used over 200 bags to create his long body, and these sweet cherry blossoms were created with reused plastic bags. My purpose in creating art out of plastic is to promote reuse and discourage single use products. No one has time to upcycle or re purpose the billions of plastic bags that are not recycled. On average we only recycle one plastic bag in every 200 we use. Each year, an estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide. That comes out to over one million per minute.

Plastic is everywhere and it’s hard to ignore. We’ve seen major changes in what is able to be recycled in Marion County because of now extinct markets and it’s becoming harder and harder to find places to accept and process our waste. So what is the solution?

Tonight Tom Anderson, our local city councilor is proposing a bag ban. Join the many people in support of these efforts to reduce waste and protect our waterways by attending the Salem City Council Meeting today at 6 PM – 6:30 PM at City Hall. Thankfully, Salem March for Science will be gathering outside of the building at 5:30 to connect with other ban supporters. Sign a petition, become a volunteer for the ordinance, and join the email list to stay up to date. There are many in Salem wanting to make this happen. If we can organize our efforts into a single voice, we will be heard.