Struck by the ridiculousness of the amount of plastic packaging that surrounds everyday life, artist and filmmaker Robin Frohardt created the Plastic Bag Store in Ann Arbor, in the U.S. state of Michigan.
Thousands of products, created entirely from discarded plastic pulled from the trash, are on display on shelves around the store, which opened to the public on Tuesday.
The creatives behind the store hope to draw attention to the impact of single-use plastics with their eggs, melons, meat, vegetables and cakes made entirely from single-use plastic bags.
The store may seem as pointless as the double-bagging of groceries items at checkout, but the absurdity is part of the installation’s emphasis, organizers said.
The U.S. alone wastes 100 billion plastic bags every year, according to data from the environmental research organization the Worldwatch Institute.
Instead of sitting in landfills for 1,000 years without degrading, the plastic bags in the Plastic Bag Store, are transformed into art, can be a stage for a series of short films in which puppetry can educate future generations on the dangers of plastic waste.
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