Narrator: Would you pay $133
for a tote made out of garbage?
This one is made by hand.
This leather factory in New York uses a 40-year-old loom
to weave plastic bags into a reusable tote.
The city used to go through 23 billion of these per year
before banning them in 2020,
and the vast majority were never recycled.
But are legal bans the most effective way
to get people to use less plastic?
And can inventions like this help reduce worldwide waste?
Owner Pierre Dabagh
has been running Park Avenue International since 1982.
And he was skeptical when his son, Alex Dabagh,
came up with the idea for the totes.
I'm old-fashioned.
I came to the United States during civil war in Lebanon.
And after five years, I opened my own factory.
I was against this because I say,
"You're going to waste your time.
Who's going to buy garbage bags?"
Narrator: The idea came to Alex one night
when he was taking out the trash.
I realized, if this is one family's garbage
on a single week, what are the other 8.5 million people
in New York City doing?
The construction and the design of the plastic woven
was pretty much inspired by this.
This is a 10-by-6-foot carpet
that I made all from repurposed upcycled leather scraps
and remnants that were on the cutting-room floor.
I figured, if I can do this with leather,
why can't I do this with plastic?
And after six months of trial and error,
we were able to figure out the right technique.
Narrator: Alex and his team
start by separating plastic bags by size.
The shop already had all the right equipment.
Alex: So these are the same machines
that we use for pretty much any leather-good construction.
Narrator: They fuse the bags together
using a heat sealer and cut them into long strips.
They spool the strips into something like yarn,
which is then woven together using a handloom.
Alex: It took Ruben two and a half, three days to weave all this.
Narrator: Figuring out how to combine
soft and harder plastics took some troubleshooting.
Alex: So in the beginning when we first started this,
we were using all soft plastic bags,
like the single-use that you get at a supermarket,
but we noticed when we took it off the roll,
the bag wouldn't stand up on its own.
So we went back to the drawing board,
and I started using the heavier plastics
that were coming through the factory
and mixing that in with the softer plastics.
So it's a lot stronger now.
This bag could probably easily hold at least 50 to 75 pounds.
Narrator: It takes nearly four hours
to make just one bag.
Finally, they cut out the sides of the bags
and stitch on the binding and handles.
It takes about 95 plastic bags to make the aNYbag,
which is short for "a New York bag."
So far, they've sold nearly 300 aNYbags.
In the beginning,
Alex collected plastic from friends and family.
Alex: You could see the Duane Reades in there, the CVS,
the Home Depots, the "I Love New York" bags in there.
Here we have about 22 garbage bags full of plastic
that we've collected in the last six months.
Pretty much nothing we're not using,
from bubble wrap to heavy plastic film to shopping bags
to bread wrapping.
I mean, anything that has a plastic bag,
we're stripping it down and using it.
Narrator: But he scaled up his operation in the past year.
He's partnered with fashion retailers
and even elementary schools
to collect their unwanted plastic.
Now, he has more than 8,000 pounds of material to work with.
ANYbag's $133 price point might seem steep,
but Alex markets it as a luxury item.
The cost of the aNYbag
really reflects the process of the making of it.
The weaving process alone is very time-consuming,
which costs a lot of money,
especially being here in New York City.
Narrator: The common grocery bag
is made of polyethylene plastic.
It was first patented in 1965,
and by the mid-'80s, it had gained real traction
over the paper bag in American supermarkets.
In many ways, it's a brilliant invention —
it's thin, stretchy, strong, and cheap to make.
Today, we go through 1 trillion bags worldwide every year,
most of which are made with fossil fuels.
One study found that the average bag is used for 12 minutes
and then thrown out.
Less than 10% of them are ever recycled.
And they're one of the most commonly littered items
on the planet.
They're light and easily shredded,
which means they can wreak havoc
on animals and ecosystems alike.
The world's most populous countries
are starting to ban many kinds of single-use plastics.
China's already banned plastic bags and straws
in some places this year,
and a nationwide ban will take effect by 2025.
India has a similar law that goes into effect in 2022.
In the US, eight states have passed some form of bag ban.
New York's went into effect in October of 2020.
It had been delayed for seven months
following a lawsuit and the pandemic.
But they're still everywhere.
The law prevents large chains from offering plastic bags,
but there are exemptions for things like takeout food,
prescription drugs, newspapers, and garment bags.
And enforcement is rare.
The state has only fined 14 businesses a total of $27,250
for violating the ban.
So do these laws actually reduce waste?
Kenya enacted one of the strictest bans in 2017,
with harsh penalties for any violations.
The Kenyan government
says 80% of people now comply with the law,
and the country has begun to issue bans
on other single-use plastic items.
California was the first US state
to enforce a plastic bag ban in 2016.
A study published three years later
found thin plastic bag use was down by more than 70%,
but that people spent more on paper
and sturdier plastic bags.
Taxing consumers who choose plastic bags
is a more effective way to limit their use,
according to some experts.
There's always tote bags, which certainly last longer,
but as Alex notes, they come with costs of their own.
Alex: You have to remember
that in order to create an alternative,
they need to manufacture something new.
So with that mass manufacturing
comes CO2 emissions and carbon footprints.
So the best solution out there is really to upcycle.
And when I say upcycle,
it's taking what's already out there, what's existing,
giving it a second life,
giving it a second use or get creative,
which is what I'm doing with the aNYbag.
Narrator: The company is not taking in
any more plastic donations at the moment,
but that doesn't stop Pierre
from scouting potential material for more aNYbags.
Pierre: Yes, I do joke with my son in the morning
when we're driving.
In the West Side, I see those plastic hanging in the trees.
I tell him, "Look, you want me to stop
to take those plastics?"
He starts laughing.
He says, "Come on, Dad, not that much."