Rachel Allison’s graphic novel, I’m Not A Plastic Bag, follows a plastic bag that is stuck in a tree’s branches and makes its way to the ocean, joining the 80,000 tonnes of plastic that make up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (Lebreton et al.). This mass of discarded garbage takes life as it develops a face and grows limbs. As it continues to grow, trash being delivered in all directions, it seeks attention from actual life passing it by: first a squid, then a seagull. Neither fell prey to the Patch despite its many attempts by flashing welcoming signs and showing off new trash until finally the plastic bag from the beginning with a bright red heart on its center catches the bird’s attention. It proceeds to scoop up the deceiving plastic for its dinner and is not seen until later when the seagull’s carcass is depicted lying on the surface of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, joining the junk.

          The phrase “I’m Not A Plastic Bag” grew in popularity around 2007 when fashion designer Anya Hindmarch designed a canvas tote bag and printed it across the front. This movement intended to encourage the reduction of single-use plastic bags which humans have been far too careless in regards to the quantity at which we dispense them. Americans use 100 billion plastic bags a year on average, and such bags take 1,000 years to degrade into microplastics, not ever fully breaking down (Chamas et al.). By buying these bags, Hindmarch hoped that individuals would begin to carry reusable bags with them to lower the amount of plastic bags people take and toss shortly after which ultimately end up in landfills or make their way to the Pacific Ocean. The purpose of Allison’s graphic novel follows the theme of the movement as the plastic bag becomes more than just a bag with a foreword and afterword to highlight the dire changes that need to be made lest we want the Great Pacific Garbage Patch to spread its terror.

          The drawing above is the most gore we get from the novel: the seagull’s carcass. Its body is torn apart, beginning decomposition after its stomach feels mistakenly filled with the plastic bag. When the bird’s body has fully decomposed, the plastic bag will remain, likely the future poison for another innocent forager. This image is a reflection of human negligence and forces us to look into a sickening mirror and visualize what happens when we continue to produce and pollute our planet. This unique way to elicit a change is by means of pollution ecohorror, highlighting the poor relationship we, humans, have with our environment.

Effects of Consumerism

          Growing more modern and becoming a more industrial society, consumerism and overproduction have become increasingly toxic to our surroundings. This resultant toxicity of our growing economy is pictured to fuel the growing monster, this trash vortex, which preys on our waste. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch was first stumbled upon in 1997, and plastics have continued to gather there and will continue to if our plastic production does not lower. Such plastics, like single-use plastic bags, will never fully break down and remain destructive pollutants.

          As captured above, Allison’s monster, portraying the GPGP, deceivingly cleans the ocean around it as it adds it to its mass. Throughout the graphic novel, it only grows in size and never shrinks, representative of the endless output of products that serve temporary purposes and eventually make their way out and into the environment. The globalization of products has shifted society to practice incredibly unsustainable overconsumption as inessential items are viewed as necessary (Mayell). Thus, humans routinely make unnecessary purchases and discard perfectly fine pieces as a result. This surplus of easily avoidable pollution is shown through the ripples of trash that accumulate and form the enemy Patch in the novel. A similar excess is pictured in the Pixar film WALL-E where junk has overtaken the planet and mankind is forced to vacate and occupy outer space. A failure to alter rates of consumption wiped out all other species, devastating the Earth. The Captain looks out onto Earth from the Axiom, their extraterrestrial home, and notes the stark difference in what Earth looks like compared to what it had before. He exclaims, “Wait, that doesn’t look like Earth. Where’s the blue sky? Where’s t-the grass?” (WALL-E). Repeating this twice, he is in utter and extreme shock by the state in which they left their home, having caused the downfall of the planet by being reckless with their consumption and production.

Humans are the Horror

          In the image above, it is clear how purposeful Allison’s decision to anthropomorphize the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is. It has clear fingers attached to its outstretched arms, along with an eye made from an abandoned tire and mouth from scrapped signs. This personification makes it human-like as that is what it is: a byproduct of human waste. As the root cause of the creature in this novel, readers are forced to picture themselves as the Patch, luring innocent animals, such as the illustrated squid, to their death. This horrifying realization plants the seed for serious self-reflection which is exactly the author’s intention. This graphic novel draws individuals to fear the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and give it the attention it is normally shaded from, leading them to realize that they are the ones to fear. Bookended with informational and encouraging paratexts, the novel hopes to inspire a call to action in readers. The childlike drawings in the supposed text for all ages conflict with the systemic issues that I’m Not A Plastic Bag encourages readers to act on that are specifically angled for adults (Anderson). This makes it difficult for the novel to make the impact it hopes to result in as children are not as able to make the drastic changes that the book asks of them.