Greenacres Students Weave a Plastic Bag Mandala

Greenacres students found a unique way to honor the earth by contributing used plastic bags to a "Plastic Bag Mandala" created by artist Gala Narezo. The mandala is part of her exhibit called "Awake and Aware: Creatively Transforming Behaviors and the World." It is a participatory project created to engage the public in dialogue around the environmental harm caused by plastic bags. The Plastic Bag Mandala has been travelling around and at each stop the public is invited to bring their used plastic bags and weave them into the mandala while pledging to use reusable bags in the future. It is now visiting Greenacres Elementary School as part of its Earth Day celebration.

A mandala is a circle contained within a square. It is a form that represents the universe as well as how our minds and the earth are connected. Narezo's work is designed to demonstrate that we are all connected and play a part in each others' future well-being, and by thinking about how we can waste less, we can help the earth.

Here are a few facts about the environmental effect of plastic bags:

• A plastic bag can take up to 20 years to degrade.
• Plastic bags are the most common form of garbage polluting our seas.
• Plastic bags are eaten and choked on by fish, whales, sea turtles and bird, who mistakenly think that they are food.
• The average American uses 330 plastic bags a year.
• Globally one million plastic bags are used every minute.
• The average total amount of time a plastic bag is used for is 12 minutes.

You can reduce your use of plastic bags by bringing reusable bags to stores and recycling the ones you have at home.