HOPE: Honolulu Bans Plastic Bags

Single-use plastic bags are a thing of the past in Honolulu! They didn't manage to establish a fee for both paper and plastic, but this is an important move for a major city. Check out the report on Honolulu Beat.


If Honolulu's success fires you up, here is site that will help you get ban the bag legislation going where you live. This Ban the Bag blog offers both a history of the issue and practical strategies for political action against single-use plastic bag pollution.

"Bag It" in Omaha, Nebraska

Megan 'White' Shonka, a SIW project participant, is hosting a screening of the fabulous film, "Bag It", about our addiction to single use plastic bags! on April13. If you are in Omaha or know anyone there, be sure to forward the info. Go Megan! Let us know what the response is.

Info on how about how some cities have banned plastic bags may inspire you to start a grassroots initiative! Here is a link to an NPR report and an LA Times article about the Santa Monica ban.

Exciting Developments in Brazil!

New Reef begins in Porta Alegre, Brazil! Daisy Maicel, participant in our first reef, has translated the Something in the Water guidelines and call into Portuguese and is launching the first satellite project, Alguma Coisa Na Agua. Please take a look! Many of you are pictured in her blog. Take a look and feel free to contribute to her reef! Daisy's email is: daisymaciel15@yahoo.com.br

We hope to exhibit this along with the original reef in Brazil. As new reefs are created, we plan to exhibit them together for greater and greater impact as the scale of the project grows. If you would like to start a reef, please contact me!

wendy.osher@verizon.net

Take THAT, plastic bags!

If you already know Annie Leonard, you'll be hitting play right now. If you don't start now! This is the first of her new podcasts about great things that people are doing to whittle away our mountains of environmental/systemic problems. This one is about plastic bags. Listen up and you might just be inspired to get your community on the ban the bag wagon! Its called The Good Stuff.

October 9 -11, 2011 our reef was on view for 2,000 participants at Aashe, an international sustainability in higher education conference, to check out. This was the first year that the conference included art and our project was one of only two pieces included. People were very curious and interested in the materials, ideas, and participants. I showed visitors how to crochet plastic bags and quite a few gave it a try. One insightful person remarked on how the piece 'draws one in as a kind of Dr. Suessical landscape, then once one's attention is captured the dark reality of the eco-underpinnings hit even harder.......'

I mentioned to a number of people that I would like to continue the project with new managers in different parts of the world, allowing the reef to accumulate each time it is on view. Anybody interested?

Check out the latest review in Artes Magazine, October 14, 2011. Scroll down to see image and discussion of Something in the Water.

Something in the Water in Too Shallow for Diving: The 21st Century is Treading Water opened May 14th,

2011 at the American Jewish Museum of Pittsburgh.

The opening was packed with enthusiastic and curious people.

Museum staff reported daily inquiries and fascination with this piece from visitors throughout its two-month run.

Everyone wanted to give it a squeeze!

The Plastiki

Watch this tongue in cheek video (click on "latest video" at the bottom of the page)...about the aspirations of plastic bag! Really a hoot while dead serious. Then click around and find out more about this remarkable four-year voyage in the Pacific in a raft made of plastic bottles.