As managing editor of Here's a post that's sure to make some Plastics Blog readers angry. It's a Web-based cartoon called Gorilla in the Greenhouse, and its first episode is devoted to plastic bag litter.
I don't think most readers will have a problem with the idea of communicating to kids that they shouldn't litter, or that they should recycle or reuse things like plastic bags. Those messages are in the cartoon. The part I think some will find objectionable is how the cartoonist portrays the plastic bag company. The factory is run by some smarmy characters named Wormulus and Dr. Hufflebot, a "destructive duo" bent on world domination. In this episode, titled the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" (which not a new concept to this blog's readers), Wormulus and Hufflebot are creating billions of plastic bags in order to create a floating empire called Baglandia.
Remember, this is aimed at little kids. The tone is that plastics are bad, and factories are run by evil people. The Web site urges kids to push for legislative bag bans -- they're told that's the only real solution to the problem.
Thanks to the Los Angeles Times' Daily Deal Travel blog, of all places, for alerting me to this cartoon.