What's the Bag Deal?

Two ladies start to argue at the supermarket about which is better—paper or plastic bags. A bag fight erupts—the bags transform themselves into sumo wrestlers (dressed in paper or plastic mawashi), and the battle of the century begins! However, before the sumo wrestlers can get at each other, the Green Ninja intervenes. He uses his handy Carbon Footprint Scale to compare the carbon emissions of a paper bag with those of a plastic bag. However, the story gets more complicated when the Green Ninja throws the groceries themselves onto his Carbon Footprint Scale. Now who's going to win the battle?

Paper or plastic: The Green Ninja delivers a deeper message on the debate about paper or plastic. He reveals the complexity of the debate by showing that paper bags have a carbon footprint approximately 10 times larger than plastic bags. Plastic bags have become a controversial issue leading more and more people to ask for paper bags at their supermarkets. However, the production of paper bags tends to have a higher impact on the environment (before disposal) than the production of plastic bags, largely due to the difference in weight between the bags.

What we purchase: Before the plastic fans can get too excited, we discover that the average contents of a grocery bag (regardless of whether it is paper, plastic, or reusable cloth) have a carbon footprint at least 40 times larger than the bag itself.

Although serious environmental issues are associated with single-use paper and plastic bags, the Green Ninja shows that it is more important to consider what goes inside the bag. The potential global-warming impacts of a shopper's purchases will generally be more significant than the fabric of the bag. Once you've thought about your products, then you can focus on the bag—reusable bags made from organic cotton and used many times are probably the best for the environment.

Although both paper and plastic bags have their pros and cons, the Green Ninja shows that our first concern should be to focus on what products are going into our shopping bags.

 

 

Credits

Main Artist:

Michelle Ikemoto
Michelle designed and produced What's the Bag Deal? and Freight Debate. She is an Animation/Illustration student at SJSU. She began drawing at a young age and consumed any animated media she could get her hands on, carrying her dream of being part of the animation industry through childhood into college. She's also fond of musicals and cultivating her comic book collection. Michelle is currently working to become a professional animator, with an interest in storyboarding.

Sound Editor: Steve Erickson

Voice Actors: Jessica Ellithorpe, Katie Zeisl and Ovan Chan.

 
This video is a work in progress. These storyboards (or animatics) are developed to help visualize the scenes and refine the story before the final animation is produced.