Bags Across the Globe: Bagging the Waste for a Sustainable Future

Abstract

Historically the crafts tended to be sustainable by nature, using local resources that were sustainably harvested. The Industrial Revolution destroyed the central role played by the crafts in many cultures, while planned obsolescence put an end to the long-term use, repair and re-use of consumer goods. Today, due to the interconnectedness made possible by the internet, the crafts, design and visual arts have the opportunity to create for themselves a vital role in global sustainability agendas. This paper discusses a project created in response to one such sustainability issue, the environmental damage caused by the four to five billion plastic shopping bags used globally each year. In addition to clogging waterways and littering landscapes, plastic bags comprise some of the most hazardous ocean debris. It is estimated that plastic debris causes the deaths 100,000 marine creatures and one million birds annually. Bags Across the Globe (BAG) is a global collaborative piece intended to raise awareness of the environmental damage caused by plastic bags, and to promote the creation and dissemination of reusable shopping bags made from discarded materials. Launched in 2009, it is an ongoing effort that involves University of California Design students in creating shopping bags out of discarded vinyl banners and fabric samples. One hundred eighty free bags have been sent to over 90 participants in nearly 60 countries. Participants keep one bag and return a photo of themselves with the bag and a BAG postcard with a message. The photos and selected messages are posted on an interactive world map on the BAG website. A final gallery installation of the BAG project will tour several countries. BAG is a blend of craft, art and design in the service of a global sustainability agenda, using the internet for contact and communication. It is a cross-cultural exchange of energy, information and ideas, in which shopping bags are the vehicles of this exchange. It functions as a seed project to inspire other individuals and groups to launch their own bag projects. It already has led to the planning of projects with people interested in adapting the project to their own endeavours in India, Dominica, and Mali. Bags Across the Globe has larger implications for the unsustainable consumer culture of today. It embodies the frugality and recycling ethos practiced by many traditional cultures but adapts it to a contemporary sensibility. One of this project’s hoped-for outcomes is to help change the teaching goals in craft and design schools, to become rooted in local community participation, social equity, and environmental, financial and cultural sustainability. Design, craft and art education of the twenty-first century must change to embody a whole system approach and to embrace a broader base of knowledge -- including familiarity with climate change, Life Cycle Analysis, renewable resources, and more -- that will enable students to work in interdisciplinary teams to solve the daunting environmental, social and financial problems the world faces today.