CHICAGO (WGN) — An installation on Michigan Avenue hopes to make you think before you buy, and puppeteers are helping spread the word.
The Plastic Bag Store is making its Chicago debut, showing how much plastic is used in everyday life. Experts say just 10% of the plastic used in the U.S. is recycled.
Creators have mended together the concepts of puppets and environmental awareness, with a puppet film highlighting the permanence of plastic and how it affects the future.
On the store’s shelves, shoppers will find Plastic Dew, a “Charbagerie Platter,” and Yucky Shards — the plastic versions of Mountain Dew, a charcuterie platter and Lucky Charms. They can also find cap tarts, a swimsuit edition of Bags Illustrated, Bitz crackers and many of their other grocery needs, all created out of plastic.
Robin Frohardt, creator of the Plastic Bag Store, tells NewsNation affiliate WGN that she got the idea while watching someone bag her items that were already in bags or boxes.
“I thought it would be funny to make a grocery store that just had packaging to just sort of highlight how much packaging waste is in our everyday lives,” Frohardt explains.
The store even has a “Plastic Time Machine,” which allows customers to input plastic trash, enter a future date, and see what the item will look like. Spoiler alert — it comes out looking the same as it went in.
The Plastic Bag Store itself is made out of plastic trash, with an aim to change others’ perspectives on the helpfulness of reusing.
Frohardt says she doesn’t want the store to send home a message that we must stop using plastic altogether. Instead, she hopes that if there is a cultural shift and consumers are aware of how much plastic is used, in addition to policy changes, things can change.
More details about the Chicago art installation can be found here.