Egan Sanders, the very first Bagonaut, contacted me recently about a rather unique project he's undertaking.

Egan will be lowered into the world's largest re-usable canvas bag on September 8 and spend 24 hours inside in order to raise awareness of the impact on the environment of plastic shopping bags, while also gathering donations of food items for a local food bank.

The bag, dubbed BIGBAG1, and its human occupant, who will also be donned in a canvas "eco-suit" will be located at Sam’s Club store in San Angelo, Texas - so if you're in the area and get a chance to drop by, let him know that Michael from Green Living Tips sent you :).

People who donate food items to a local food bank at the “Big Bag Event” will be given free reusable shopping bags donated by various businesses.

At over 8 feet tall and 6 feet wide, BIGBAG1 was constructed in San Angelo by the West Texas Lighthouse for the Blind, a sheltered facility providing employment for blind and visually impaired individuals.

It sounds like it will be quite an event, complete with a Plastic Bag Film Festival, featuring movies projected onto the front of BIGBAG1 :).

According to the  US Environmental Protection Agency, over 380 billion plastic bags, sacks, and wraps are consumed in the
U.S. each year and around 12 million barrels of oil are used to crank out all that plastic.

Bagonaut Egan Sanders describes himself as "not exactly a hippie, not exactly a Republican..just a guy trying to make some sense of a world in environmental chaos".

It's great seeing folks throwing themselves (excuse the pun) into environmental awareness projects such as this and the added angle of the food donations is wonderful! I wish Egan the very best for the event, sounds like it will stir up substantial interest and be a lot of fun!

You can read the full press release here or visit Egan's site, Bagonaut, to learn more about the event.