Bagman brings crusade to Philadelphia

California man is trying to convince people not to use plastic bags when shopping, or at least reuse the ones they have.

A California man is in Philadelphia to try to convince people not to use plastic bags when shopping. He uses a dramatic display to prove his point.

Clad in a suit made of 500 plastic bags, the number used by an average person in an average year, Activist Andy Keller is surrounded by a pile of 45-thousand bags, the number people use in a lifetime. Keller says the point is to ask people to recycle and reuseso fewer bags will be manufactured.

“the reality is these bags are made from fossil fuel and we’re taking incredible risks to extract fossil fuel from the ground, think the Gulf Oil Spill. We only use these bags for an hour, a week and they last for five hundred to a thousand years in the environment.”

Under incredible pressure from retailers, Philadelphia City Council rejected a bill to ban plastic bags. Keller says reusing and recycling or just forgoing a plastic bag is the best way to go.

I’m Tom MacDonald WHYY News.