That was amazing. Absolutely the best Anti-Plastic-Bag advert I have ever seen. I love that voice actor.

Good for Seattle. It's a waste of time and money, and has virtually no impact on the environment. The effort would be better spent on a lot of other green initiatives.

It's ... the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.

I loved it. A perfect parody. The narrator was great.

That's that luscious voice of Pierce Brosnan!

Oops: Jeremy Irons not 007. sorry guys.

http://www.healthebay.org/actionalerts/a…

Can we get this run on the National Geographic Channel? I bet plenty of people would not realize it's an ad.

@3,2

Riiiiiiiiight!

Because the health of our oceans is no big deal, right?

Good Morning Dan,
Cool video. I recall that scene (a plastic bag almost "dancing" in the wind in front a wall) from the film "American Beauty" about 5-6 years ago. There was a bizarre beauty to it. Which was of course, the point.

FTR, I'm all in favor of a plastic bag ban. I usually (80% of the time) bring my own cloth bag to the grocery and Farmers' Market. When I obtain plastic bags, I reuse them for lunch sacks.

More plastic bag fun:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDBtCb61S…

A parody of a Werner Herzog documentary, as narrated by Werner Herzog.

I'm in Ireland now--on the shores of Loch Allen, halfway between Drumkeeran and Drumshanbo, watching the future steaks graze contentedly in the light rain--and they've had a plastic bag ban since 2003. It's not a whole ban, but if you want a bag, you have to pay for it separately after the transaction.

The effect of this? According to my friend, "Everyone has much more agile fingers from carrying random shite hope from the shops."

Seriously, she says: "It's grand. There aren't bags festooned all over the countryside. The Irish are natural non-compliers, but everyone just adapted because there was a cost involved. No one even talks about it anymore."

Everyone I've seen here and in Cork has several canvas bags in their car, or panniers. People also carry reusable bags in their purses and pockets. And if anyone has a plastic bag for some reason, it's re-used till it disintegrates.

And a key point: the bags are not banned. But if you want to use one, you pay for it. Isn't that the free market that all the anti-environmentalists claim to love?

But that's Ireland, not Seattle. The weather parallels notwithstanding, nothing that works elsewhere could ever work in Seattle.

Timing.

Right now with the ever unpopular Billionaires Tunnel, voter turnout in Seattle is way down, and unless the Gov kills the Billionaires Tunnel, there is no way they can risk putting another Bag Tax on the ballot. A plastic bag ban would be supported by voters, but since they're still gung ho on the tunnel, they can't risk putting it on and depressing Seattle votes lower for the statewide elections in November.

I told you this would happen. You didn't listen.

we are light years away from doing anything real about plastic bags here in the east coast

That was a fantastic ad. Jeremy Irons' voice is a great addition to it. I laughed out loud when the bag encountered "one of nature's most deadly killers: the Teacup Yorkie."

Want to save the environment?

DRIVE LESS.

There, solved that one for you.

I'm deathly serious.

Next most important thing? FLY LESS. Use the high speed trains that every first world nation has ... oh wait, this is the US, never mind, you're just stuck on stupid ...

@13: You can find a way to bring your precious Billionaires' Tunnel into ANY discussion, can't you? Are you paid to post this dreck?

Here in Washington DC, the city council passed a 5-cent bag tax in January.

It was a pretty tough sell (residents were split 50-50), but the reason it finally passed is that the city council made sure they had some political cover: they linked the bag tax directly to the local river. The stores get to keep a penny or two, and the rest goes to a cleanup fund for the Anacostia River, which goes right through the city (it is a main tributary to the Potomac).

They did a major publicity campaign called "Save the River, Skip the Bag." I remember seeing many pictures of the Anacostia's trash islands (floating blobs of trash and plastic bags) and hearing, over and over, the statistic that half of the trash in Anacostia tributaries is plastic bags. They also knew that they would face accusations that the bag tax would hurt the poor (that's how a bottle deposit bill was killed in the 1980's) so they kept that in mind as they planned their strategy (more about that here: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/rawfish…). When it finally passed, they partnered with grocery stores and did huge reusable bag giveaways, especially in poor neighborhoods.

Because they linked the issue directly to the river, and because they did lots of reusable bag giveaways, it finally worked and the politicians are not nervous they've committed career suicide.

Behaviors changed overnight: The DC office of Taxes & Revenue reported that in 2009, DC residents were using 22.5 million bags a month. The bag tax took effect on Jan 1, 2010, and by the end of January, city residents had only used 3.3. million bags.

And the really good news? It's having a domino effect. Now Maryland and Virginia are both considering it as well.

There's a lot more info here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con…

I carry my own canvas bags and have them stored in the car as well. It works well.

*looks through comments, finds no link to Tim Minchin*

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvnYIxv_3…

@12 - No, no, you misunderstand. The "Free-Market" is when they get stuff for free, and then turn around and make a profit off all the green-washed environmentalists.¡

Here's some slogans that could work for Seattle.

"Don't be spastic. Skip the plastic!"
"The Sound is quiet. Plastic crinkles."
"Save the Sound! Drop the bags."
"Bags are Sad. Make a 'Sound' investment ... in Canvas!"
"Don't be a Bag Hag! Bring your own!"
"You don't have to be a Hippie to bring your own bag."
"The Fish Say: 'Please don't make the Great Pacific Garbage Patch any bigger! Think of the turtles!'"

... You get the idea. Go on, run with it!

Best. Video. Ever.

Seriously, it was perfect in its hilarity.