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Politics & Government

Environmental Task Force Members, Others Pay to Screen Movie on Impact of Plastic Bags

The film is called "Bag It."

Members of the Takoma Park Task Force on Environmental Action (TFEA) and others are funding a free screening of a documentary focused on the impact plastic bags have on the environment and people’s health. The film “Bag It” is scheduled to be shown April 28 at 7 p.m. at the Takoma Park Community Center Auditorium. A short discussion will follow the screening.

“I have seen the movie, and that was one of the reasons I was willing to put up my own money to secure the licensing rights,” said Joe Edgell, TFEA co-chair. The City Council established the TFEA to review the current status of the city’s plans and operations related to climate change and the environment and to prepare a roadmap for achieving the vision elaborated in the city’s “Strategic Plan.” The TFEA issued its final report on April 30, 2010. “There are a lot of environmental issues to tackle and the issue of plastic waste is one of many things the TFEA report focused on,” Edgell said.

“Bag It” follows everyman Jeb Berrier as he tries to make sense of the nation’s dependence on plastic bags, according to a synopsis of the film. Although he starts out small, Berrier learns that the problem extends past landfills to oceans, rivers and ultimately human health, the synopsis says.

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According to “Bag It”—which received the Best of Festival award at the BLUE Ocean Film Festival in Monterey, Calif.—the average American uses about 500 plastic bags each year, for about 12 minutes each. The practice of using single-use bags has led to the formation of a Texas size floating island of plastic debris in the Pacific Ocean, the movie says.

The film examines those issues, and identifies how daily reliance on plastic threatens not only waterways and marine life, but also human health, for at least two common plastic additives are endocrine disruptors, which have been shown to link to cancer, diabetes, autism, attention deficit disorder, obesity and infertility.

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The April 28 screening is part of campaign to urge 25 towns across the country to become “Bag It Towns,” which, by the end of 2011, either ban plastic bags or charge a fee on single-use disposable bags.

This is a documentary that is timely, and it goes “really well with what the TFEA had put together in its report,” said Edgell. The film “connects with what the City Council put together in its strategic plan and all of these things came together,” he said.

In addition to Edgell, others who paid to show “Bag It” are Colleen Clay, Takoma Park City Councilmember; Milford Sprecher, TFEA member; Terrill North, TFEA member; and Sat-Jiwan Ikle-Khalsa, of Truthful Living Environmental & Green Building Consulting; and the Takoma Park City Council (which waived the fee for use of the auditorium).

While the movie is free, advance reservations are encouraged and can be obtained at http://bagittakomapark.eventbrite.com. For more information, send an e-mail to bagitinfo@greenrenovation.us.

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