FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

Bring Your Own Bag (BYOBag) Saratoga to Host

Bag It Movie Screening

 

Where: Saratoga Springs Public Library, Dutcher Community Room

When: 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, October 15

Bag It Trailer: http://vimeo.com/5645718

 

SARATOGA SPRINGS—Americans use 60,000 plastic bags every 5 minutes, and they throw them away without much thought. But where is “away”? Where do all those plastic bags end up and at what cost to the environment and human health? Since its premier in 2010, award-winning Bag It has been shown at over 1,000 festivals, theaters and churches across the world.  Bag It is a fun and informative documentary that follows average American Jeb Berne as he navigates our plastic world, beginning his journey by questioning the necessity of plastic bags, what they are made from, and where they go after they are discarded. Along the way, Jeb learns how plastics affect land ecosystems, the marine environment, and the human body.

The Bag It screening is free and open to the public. The movie is being sponsored by BYOBag Saratoga, a reusable bag initiative, which seeks to reduce the collective consumption of single-use disposable bags in our city. BYOBag is a project of Sustainable Saratoga, a not-for-profit organization that promotes sustainable practices and the protection of natural resources in Saratoga, through education, advocacy and action.

After the movie screening (total run time: 74 minutes), BYOBag Co-Chair Margie Shepard will moderate a question and answer session that features representatives from local businesses and city government, including Michele Madigan, Saratoga Springs Commissioner of Finance; Josh Weinstock, Manager of Continuous Improvement at Price Chopper; Kim Hanson, Assistant Store Manager at Hannaford; Gloria Griskowitz, Owner of Putnam Market and Tim Scherbatskoy, Scientist at SUNY Adirondack.

Shepard sees the efforts of BYOBag Saratoga as part of a progressive, world-wide movement that includes countries such as Ireland, South Africa and Italy, as well as U.S. cities from San Francisco, California, to Larchmont, New York. “Our goal is to encourage consumers and retailers to rely on reusable shopping bags to reduce the economic and environmental costs of disposable plastic waste,” says Shepard.  “Working with citizens, businesses and city government, the Bring Your Own Bag campaign seeks to make Saratoga a model city where waste reduction and recycling are common practice.”

Saratoga Springs Public Library is located at 49 Henry Street in downtown Saratoga Springs. The movie will be shown in the H. Dutcher Community Room located on the first floor of the library. For more information on BYOBag Saratoga, please visit sustainablesaratoga.org/projects.