- Home
- News
- Opinion
- Letters
- Sports
- Prospecting
- Essentials
- Obituaries
- Real Estate
- Comics
- Gallery
- Classifieds
- Advertisers
- Coupons
- Contact Us
Share Article
854
973854973
Citizens and community groups, including the Sierra Club Maidu Group, and other organizations, are hosting a screening of the award winning environmental documentary “Bag It” at the Cozmic Café in Placerville, July 18 from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm. There is no admission for the events.
“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 screenings are part of a community campaign called Take Out Plastics in El Dorado County to introduce an ordinance to ban the free distribution of plastic bags in El Dorado County and the two incorporated cities of Placerville and South Lake Tahoe as well as educate the community of the impacts of plastics on the environment and public health.
The Mountain Democrat does not necessarily condone the comments here, nor does it review every post. Read our full policy
EldoradoJuly 18, 2012 - 9:23 am
Didn't we go to plastic bags because the environmental groups wanted to save trees? And wasn't it also because of all the bad chemicals that are required to make paper bags?
Susan MaginayJuly 18, 2012 - 10:12 am
No, it was because they are cheaper.
prime timeJuly 18, 2012 - 10:47 am
"Both the manufacturing of plastic or paper bags pollutes water and air with toxic chemicals which pour into the nations waterways and find their way through the food chain. Neither paper or plastic bags decompose in landfills because of the lack of water, light and oxygen."
Burt HJuly 18, 2012 - 10:48 am
"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." Okay, I want clean air and water - but don't distort the reality. There is no floating Island twice the size of Texas. That's an outright lie.
prime timeJuly 18, 2012 - 10:49 am
Lead in reusable grocery bags prompts call for federal inquiry