Takoma Park Mayor Urges More Viewings of Plastic Bag Documentary

If you missed a free screening of the film “Bag It,” a documentary focused on the impact plastic bags have on the environment and people’s health, held Thursday night at the Takoma Park Community Center, not to worry, you will have other opportunities to see the movie if Mayor Bruce Williams has anything to say about it.

Williams attended the showing, and in a panel discussion following the movie, the mayor said one of the things that is on Takoma Park’s environment agenda is to “show the movie more, and get wider audiences to see it.”

“That was a tremendous movie, it gave me an awful lot to think about, there’s an awful lot there to digest, some of the things I knew and some of the things I had no idea,” Williams said, “I think it’s good there are multiple opportunities to show the movie, it’s not just a one showing that is paid for, but there is a chance to show it multiple times.”

“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.

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.

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, would either ban plastic bags or charge a fee on single-use disposable bags. The fee to show the film was $300, and it was paid for by a coalition of environmentally aware citizens including Colleen Clay, Takoma Park City Councilmember (who introduced the film); Joe Edgell, co-chair of the Takoma Park Task Force on Environmental Action (TFEA); Milford Sprecher, TFEA member; Terrill North, TFEA member; 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). In addition, by paying the $300 fees, the coalition purchased the license to show the film multiple times.

Clay said she viewed the film a day before the free screening and said, “Sometimes I see an environmental film and afterwards I’m so depressed. I didn’t feel that way this time, I actually felt more hopeful which is good” and that he “felt inspired” by the film through “there are some challenging things in it.” For example, “What do cancer, autism, diabetes, ADD, obesity and infertility have in common?” she asked the audience of about 75. Clay responded by saying, those “are things that have increased in direct proration to the amount of plastics that we have been using in our society. So I think it behooves us to take a look at how we’re living and what we’re doing.”

Joining Williams on the panel was State Assembly Delegate Al Carr (D) representing Maryland’s 18th District, who discussed his efforts to get a state “bag bill” passed. Carr has been the sponsor of a state bag bill—which is very similar to Washington, D.C.’s bag bill—for the past three years.

Carr said a constituent approached him and made him “aware of what was going on with D.C. Councilmember Tommy Wells” (D-Ward 6). Carr met with Wells and became convinced that the bag fee was “a very good approach,” therefore Carr drafted a bill that mirrored the language of Well’s bill.

Carr, who sits on the Environmental Committee in the State House, said he first introduced the bag bill in 2009. Working closely with Wells, Carr’s bill mirrored the language of Well’s bill.

However, Maryland has a 90-day legislative session and it is common for proposed legislation to take more than a year to pass because of that short window, he said. “Especially if the proposed legislation actually does something like this bag bill.” Nonetheless, Carr’s bag bill helped Wells gain the support of his colleagues on the D.C. Council.

Carr re-introduced the bag bill in 2010 and again in 2011, and while not passing, the bill has made gains.  “2010 being an election year, I think a lot of legislators were skittish about anything that smelled like a tax, so we were not successful in getting it passed, but those of use who did support it got re-elected. So in this part of Montgomery County you can support a bag bill and get re-elected to the state house,” he said. “This year (2011) we brought it back and we continued to build support,” including from Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) and House of Delegates’   Environmental Matters Committee Chairperson Maggie MacIntosh (D). “Even the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce supported it, and sent in a letter of support for us,” he said.