Attack of the Bag Monster® hammers home plastic bag threat

What it was we weren’t quite sure. Undoubtedly, that’s because we’d never seen an authentic Bag Monster®.

Atherton resident Nancy Grove – the woman swathed in plastic – filled in the blanks: “The costume is made of 500 plastic bags, the average number an American discards in a year.  Not only are fossil fuels used to produce them, they don’t break down for decades in a landfill.

“Worse, they wash into rivers and storm drains and head out to sea, where the North Pacific currently contains a floating garbage patch, conservatively twice the size of Texas.  That’s why it’s important to recycle the ones you do collect.”

Like many others who become temporary Bag Monsters, Nancy was selling ChicoBags™ as a fund raiser – in this case to send her church’s youth group on a mission trip next summer. The company behind ChicoBags – of the same name and headquartered in Chico, CA – wants “to help humanity kick the single-use bag habit.” The bags come in a variety of sizes and styles and can be folded into their own pouch and sit unobtrusively at the bottom of a purse or clipped onto a belt loop until needed.

“They’re a great fund raising item because you’re both raising money and educating people about the importance of reusable bags,” said Nancy.

Photo by David Arscott