The environment is still in crisis,
even after Eddie Vedder called astronauts on the Space Station
for an Earth Day chat.
It was going great until he pulled out his guitar
and tried out some new stuff, and the entire crew promptly
ejected themselves into space.
So how can the rest of us do better for the Earth?
I sent Allana Harkin to find out.
ALLANA HARKIN: It took forever, but we finally
have admitted that single-use plastic bags are
horrible for the ocean, can cause birth defects,
and are worse for dolphins than cigarettes.
[DOLPHIN SQUEAK]
[COUGHING]
So we, as a human race, did something completely unheard
of, and we actually changed our behavior,
ditching plastic bags in favor of reusable cotton totes.
Tres chic.
I love my tote bags.
ALLANA HARKIN: They're practical.
It's just easy to take around.
ALLANA HARKIN: They're fashionable.
I think a tote bag can really make or break someone's outfit.
ALLANA HARKIN: And they're addictive.
How many tote bags do you own?
Round it up to like, nearest 100.
Well, at this point, a lot.
ALLANA HARKIN: But kind of like how
we used to love that "American Beauty" plastic bag and actor--
I rule.
ALLANA HARKIN: Ugh.
It's time to smash your whole world beyond totes.
[SCREAMING]
Did you know that your tote bag, you
need to use it 20,000 times to offset
its environmental impact?
Really?
ALLANA HARKIN: (SLOW MOTION) Really.
Wow.
That's crazy.
ALLANA HARKIN: Yeah, it's pretty crazy.
A study out of Denmark suggests that organic cotton totes need
to be reused every day for 54 years
in order to offset their environmental impact,
which means I'm going to have to be
buried in my New Yorker tote.
Is it worse than plastic bags?
Is it worse than a plastic bag?
God, I don't even know anymore.
Time for an expert.
It's hard to compare the two.
It's not even apples and oranges,
it's potatoes and meteorites.
ALLANA HARKIN: This is FIT Professor
Susanne Goetz, who specializes in sustainable textiles.
They are both bags, but we're looking
at very different things here.
For example, with a single use plastic bag,
it doesn't take as much water or energy to produce,
but it stays in our landfill forever.
An organic cotton bag has a much different
impact in terms of toxic runoff from fertilizers.
And it's bulkier, it's heavier, it goes through more
stages of production.
So if you would only use that one once,
the environmental impact of an organic cotton bag
would actually be worse.
ALLANA HARKIN: Ugh, Susanne!
So plastic is out, organic cotton is out.
Thicker plastic bags that claim to be reusable,
those thick boys are out too.
So what am I left with, Susanne?
My hands?
A bindle and stick?
My dad's fishing vest?
Yeah, I look really good in this.
But maybe the problem isn't the tote, but the number of totes.
Because I could open two cupboards right now
and be crushed in a tote bag avalanche.
How did the tote bag become the gateway drug to more tote bags?
Anya Hindmarch, who's a accessory designer in the UK,
worked with a supermarket chain there to bring
out a reusable cotton bag.
ALLANA HARKIN: Mhm.
SUSANNE GOETZ: Which, of course, immediately became
the sought after accessory.
Sold out in a day.
ALLANA HARKIN: And thus began our nationwide addiction
to supple, sturdy cotton virtue-signaling.
And totes switch from a solution to an environmental problem.
Your hands are not clean, NPR.
[SCREAMING]
If I am going to be honest with you,
our show has created a few of our own totes
and given them to thousands of people.
How do you feel about that now?
Well, I loved it when I was shooting totes
out of a t-shirt gun at people.
[CHEERING]
Oh!
But now, I feel a little bit guilty about it.
Well, you tied it in with a really memorable experience,
and possibly a bruise, so they might
just keep them for a long time.
ALLANA HARKIN: Yeah.
New York State Senator Alessandra Biaggi
says that the real problem is with overproduction by
the media and fashion industry.
We think of global greenhouse gas emissions.
We think of the auto industry.
We think of the energy industry.
But the fashion industry is responsible for between 4%
and 8.6% of global greenhouse gas emissions worldwide.
ALLANA HARKIN: Yep.
That embroidered poncho you were convinced you could pull off,
it admits more greenhouse gas than the aviation waste
and deforestation sectors combined.
I don't know if you've seen the image of the Atacama Desert
in Chile.
We're throwing our excess fashion
into the desert in Chile.
What?
And I feel like as an American, that's embarrassing.
ALLANA HARKIN: So Senator Biaggi is working on the Fashion Act,
which could help save the world from evil totes and
environmental fashion faux pas.
ALESSANDRA BIAGGI: It's important
that the Fashion Act does, really, everything
it can to regulate them.
Mhm.
Because whether they like it or not,
the climate crisis is here.
It's a huge message.
Yeah.
Have you ever considered putting
it on the side of a tote bag?
No.
ALLANA HARKIN: OK.
OK.
I get it.
Totes are dead to us.
So what do we do today?
Stop buying totes, please.
Have a tote bag.
Have five tote bags if you need them, but use it.
Use them a lot.
ALLANA HARKIN (VOICEOVER): Ugh, fine.
No new totes.
But do you think we can do it?
Would you like a tote bag?
I would love a tote bag.
No.
No, I don't want a tote bag.
I'll reuse this one.
- Come on.
Take it.
Take the tote bag.
- Um.
- No!
Don't even consider it!
The answer is no.
- No.
No, thank you.
ALLANA HARKIN: Would you like a tote bag?
- No.
ALLANA HARKIN: Right answer.
- Yeah!
[LAUGHTER]
You won a tote bag for the right answer.
Here you go.
Really?
No.
We'll be right back.
[UPBEAT MUSIC]