Doc Zone: The Battle of the Bag

Name: Answer Key/44

Answer the following questions while viewing the documentary. Point form is acceptable.

  1. We weren’t always hooked on the plastic bag, but once it caught on it went viral. Now sections of our planet resemble deserts. (2 marks)
  1. Chinahas outlawed it. India has SWATteams to stomp it out. The Ban the Bag movement is catching fire. (3 marks)
  1. What does the plastic bag symbolize about consumer culture? (2 marks)

-We use, use once and throw away

-Creating a culture of buying and using stuff, but everything that we buy and use has to come from the earth

-The way we are treating the earth is NOT sustainable

  1. Reasons given in the documentary for the use of plastic bags. (3 marks)

-Habit- not many options

-Fast- bags are given to us

-Way to transport items- EASY

  1. Canadians use 6 billion plastic bags a year keeping 7000people working making plastic bags. (2 marks)
  1. Our economy is based upon consumption. (1 mark)
  1. The first bag was made from what? (1 mark)

-Bull scrotum

  1. What is plastic made of? (1 mark)

-oil

  1. All of the plastics made in the world account for 4% of the natural gas and oil consumption. (1 mark)
  1. What is the problem with polyethylene? (1 mark)

-almost indestructible

-resists degradation

-not biodegradable

  1. Which company created the plastic bag? How did the company make the product desirable? (3 marks)

-Mobil Oil

-Paper bags take more energy to produce

-Paper bags deplete forests

-Offering paper or plastic to customers

  1. A single plastic bag takes how long to disintegrate? (1 mark)

-400 – 1000 years

  1. Explain the impact of plastic on sea turtles. (1 mark) Cows are also affected. What happens and give an example from the documentary. (2 marks)

-60% had plastic in their guts

-kills the turtles by ‘impacting” (from mouth to anus)

- eat plastic while scavenging for food, blocks digestive tract

- starves to death

  1. Why are humans likely to use plastic bags and engage in other ecologically damaging behaviors? (1 mark)

-distances from the consequences

  1. The largest slum in Africa is located in Nairobi, Kenya. There is little plumbing and a few toilets among makeshift houses. Explain “flying toilets” (4 marks)

-plastic bags have been defecated in and tossed into the street.

  1. What has happened to the Nairobi dam? (3 marks)

-almost dried up

-saturated with plastic bags

-river flowing through has become a breeding ground for disease

-water barely moves due to build up of plastic bags

  1. Explain how plastic bags impact the prevalence of malaria. (3 marks)

-plastic does not biodegrade

-when it rains the bags collect water

-mosquitoes breed in stagnant water

-literally becomes millions of breeding habitats

  1. The only anti-bag police squad exists in Mumbai, India. Since they have begun bag raids they have taken tens of thousands of kilograms of illegal bags off the market. (3 marks)
  1. List the tactics used by the shop keepers of Modbury to rid their community of plastic bags. (2 marks)

-got rid of plastic bags

-every household received a free reusable bag

-replaced plastic fruit bags with paper

-biodegradable “poop” bags

  1. What does the Canadian Plastics Industry Association believe the answer is to the plastic bag problem? (2 marks)

-involve people in solving the problem

-reuse and recycle is a better approach

  1. Name the two Canadian cities that have already banned the bag. (2 marks)

-Leaf Rapids, MB

-Rosalind, BC