Apparently, plastics have an image problem! It seems we’ve been misled to believe that their stubbornly slow biodegradability, miserably low rate of actual recyclability, not to mention the fatal threat they pose to wildlife should be causes for ecological alarm which trigger some pretty simple consumer behavioral adjustments. Which is pure anti-plastic propaganda distracting us from the truth that the of “the attributes of [plastic’s] permanence work to the advantage of the environment.”
Canadian Plastics Industry Association’s president and CEO, Serge Lavoie, tells it to us straight: “our economy is based on consumption, the conversation about how much consumption is a conversation we need to have.” He then turns to the brilliant comparison with other things we consume, like shoes and food, to ask the rhetorical question sarcastically, why don’t we start a movement to ban those things, too? So, even though I generally side emotionally with the girl with the “I’m NOT a smug twat” handbag, the smiling insistence of the plastics industry (a splinter of the oil and gas companies) to stick to their guns knowing the more “distant” crises their product causes - from the flying toilets in the slums of Nairobi to the clogged sewer drains in Mumbai - is unnerving.
It’s the promotion and practice of “ecologically destructive behavior” and according to Tim Kastner, our consumer behavior psychologist, it’s explained in large part by the developed world’s disconnectedness from the consequences of such behavior. Which is why documentaries like “Battle of the Bag” end up playing an important role as a public service announcement, a reminder that our actions have consequences and that we can choose to boycott the very behaviors which threaten the health of our shared global ecosystem.
I'm was sure hoping the 2012 CBC documentary "Battle of the Bag" was going for a balanced sizing-up of the warring factions over the use of plastic bags, because that would heighten the piece's overall hilarity. The open and closing credits "It's a bad, mad, plastic bag world!" added to the schmaltzy veneer. There were moments, especially during the interview segments with good ol’ Serge Lavoie, that I swore the camera would turn to reveal Aasif Mandvi, Samantha Bee or Jason Jones holding their Comedy Central-sponsored Daily Show microphones. It played like a piece of satire intending to pass for a genuine effort to encourage the viewer to make their own decision regarding the motion on the plastic bag. But with “Battle of the Bag,” the fix is in - aside from the dude that cast lone “nay” vote in the San Francisco legislature and Mr. Lavoie, I don’t know who’s coming out of this thing defending the plastic bags. I believe the film achieves some success in highlighting the difference in culture and policy towards plastic bags between the highly industrialized countries (UK, Canada and US) and their rapidly developing onlookers (Kenya, India, China), where the problematic ecological visibility of their abundance prompts legislative bans with enforcement mechanisms. Bag raids are hard to imagine in San Francisco or Birmingham, UK, which points to the important ways in which states assess responsibility and threat vis-à-vis the environmental challenges of the 21st century.
