N.J. town reinforces bag ban with timely public art | Editorial – NJ.com

As far as local roadside art and attractions go, one recent installation wont have the longevity of Lucy the Elephant or even that guy on the Black Horse Pike with a giant pyramid of hubcaps in his yard to promote his resale business.

No, this is strictly a limited-time event, like those that the late artist Christo presented, notably wrapping the Arc de Triumph and other landmarks in fabric. And, as Christo so often did, Don Swensons design in Hammonton makes an environmental statement.

In Hammonton Lake Park sits Leviathan, a 50% octopus, 50% dragon covered almost 100 percent in one thing: single-use plastic bags, the kind that retail stores in New Jersey have been barred from using since last week.

The sculpture is actually a multi-party project hatched almost three years ago. Although local artist Swenson is responsible for the design, the idea came from a group of elementary students in Hammonton. The town environmental commission liked the idea so much for boosting awareness of the then-coming bag ban that it applied for, and received, a $500 grant from the Atlantic County Utilities Authority (the one with the wind turbines) to establish Leviathan. Local Mormon church missionaries, the Hammonton Green Committee and other volunteers brought him/her we dont know the preferred pronouns to life.

Standing 10 feet tall and 15 feet wide, and in place since October, Leviathans last days are nearing, says Dan Bachalis, who heads the environmental commission. Its exact extinction date hasnt been announced, but Bachalis expects it will be within the next month. Itll be dismantled, with the bags reused for plastic benches or lumber. He pointedly notes that 90% of plastic bags in America are never recycled.

So, you still have some limited time to see a walk-through attraction that dispenses recycling information from its belly.

Its had an impact, Bachalis said about the awareness it has brought to the town.

One wonders if people in Hammonton, or who have visited the sculpture, do better than other New Jerseyans remembering to take reusable bags with for shopping. Even the availability of thousands of plastic bags to cover the beast is a stark reminder of the sheer wastefulness of these bags.

Despite pre-ban protests that people need thin bags for trash or storage, there were more than enough orphans around so that Leviathans creators did not to have to stress over supply chain issues. Wonder how many of these bags would have ended up as traps for marine life, litter in tree branches or would have spent several human lifetimes in a landfill before decomposing?

First-week statewide observations of bagless supermarkets and Styrofoam-free restaurants were all over the lot. One call well make here is that it shouldnt be long for shoppers seen heading to their cars cradling cartfuls of items in their arms to learn to bring their reusable bags with them.

The wisdom of the paper-bag ban, also in effect for large grocery stores, has been the most questioned aspect of the new law from letter-to-the-editor writers. The state Department of Environmental Protection notes these have a carbon footprint, too, and they require the sacrifice of trees. But paper bags are degradable, made partly from recycled pulp, and are more easily re-recycled than plastic. Before you slam the most strident earth mothers for that aspect of the law, let it be said that the great ShopRite-Wegmans-Acme-Stop&Shop power axis apparently had a role in this.

It seems that free paper bags are lots more expensive for retailers than free plastic ones. Supermarkets didnt like the added cost for paper, if only plastic bags had been banned. That doesnt fully explain why you cant BUY paper sacks at the checkstand, though.

After Leviathan is fully retired, perhaps some town will decide to make another beast out of paper(bag) mache. Thanks to the folks in Hammonton for an awareness campaign that brought a smile, a chuckle, and a possible nomination for the next Roadside America edition if only the critters stay had not been so brief.

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N.J. town reinforces bag ban with timely public art | Editorial - NJ.com