Image courtesy of crispphotos.co.uk
Consumerist Christmas Tree
We're familiar with the image of a slightly frazzled but pleased Christmas shopper carrying their bounty through town after a productive day on the High Street. Most likely they are a parent laden with bags as they walk under the twinkly lights of the city centre back to the car. Maybe there's a little snowfall. Maybe there's a Salvation Army band playing in the background. That's what I have in my head.
The part of this picture we all take for granted is the bags. Plastic bags are such a ubiquitous part of life that we rarely give them a second thought these days, and yet Christmas shopping in town would be very difficult without them. Unlike grocery shopping, you don't really know how many Bags for Life to bring with you when you set off on a present-buying mission. There's impulse purchases and over-zealous packaging to be considered - and you might need to keep small items like jewellery and make-up safe in their own little baggie from getting lost in the melee of larger items. Cards and wrapping need to be kept rain- and snow-proof until they reach the safety of the boot, for example.
Plastic bags can be re-used and disposed of properly, but their prevalence as litter has given them a bad name, in spite of their usefulness. Which is why it is a shame to see the pretty plastic bag Christmas tree of Meir in Staffordshire, UK, being disparaged as "rubbish".
A lack of funding almost left the borough of Stoke-on-Trent tree-less this December. But in November, the Meir Christmas Events Board announced that in association with arts programme Appetite, it would be making a tannenbaum with a twist - utilising thousands of discarded plastic bags to create a spectacular illumination.
After getting inspiration from a similar venture in Durham, UK, last year, the Consumerist Christmas Tree project asked residents to donate their unwanted plastic shopping bags to the project, giving the bags a colourful new purpose.
The tree comes with a message. Appetite Project Director Karl Greenwood explained: "... as well as providing a spectacular Christmas centre piece, the tree challenges our throwaway society and the environmental consequences of consumerism which are particularly evident around Christmas time."
Despite the Consumerist Christmas Tree not only putting waste plastics to use in a festive and attractive way, but coming with a strong message of sustainability, it seems some local residents couldn't see past what they consider 'litter'.
The Stoke Sentinel quoted some people as saying the tree was "a horrible monstrosity", "not easy on the eye" and "awful", but as the old saying goes, you cannot please everybody.
Other locals were more open-minded, considering the controversial tree as "keeping up with modern times" and helping Meir to stand out "for the right reasons" as a pioneer. Many of the people interviewed by the newspaper also praised the project for involving so many children's creativity in the production of the tree.
The Consumerist Christmas Tree has put the matter of waste plastic bags at the front of people's minds and it does so in a way that in this humble journalist's opinion is eye-catching (and not in a negative way) and festive.
Whether you like the tree or not, the fact is Meir's festive, faux fir has raised the topic of plastic bags at a time when even the most fastidious Bag-For-Life users cannot help but bring armfuls of poly into their homes. And maybe it wouldn't hurt for more of us to think outside of the box like Meir and Durham have in how we put them to use once we've emptied them of their contents?