All of the grocery items that you see are made with plastic items that were pulled from the waste stream. I did not buy any bags or caps or lids to make any of the food. I designed and printed the boxes on the shelf but they are filled with bags and caps and other plastic objects that were recovered from the trash.

I collected items from my home, from people in my apartment building, and from friends. I also bought some empty bottles from folks in my Brooklyn neighborhood who pull them from the trash bags and bins on the street and who typically sell them to a bottle collection place across the street from my studio. I also picked plastic objects up off the beaches of NYC and out of trash cans and gutters! I developed a keen eye for the rare colors of plastic bags– like purple!

I adds local products to the Store In every city that it tours to, relying on local plastics from the local waste stream or inspiration from specific local issues which are impacted by the plastics crisis.

My collaborators and I carefully hand wash everything that was retrieved from the trash before using it in the Store.

I will tell you one thing— I am NOT going to put it back in the trash! I spent years collecting and sculpting the items in the Store and creating the show and story around them. I have been caring for some of these plastic bags since 2015! The Plastic Bag Store will continue to tour to other cities both in the US and abroad. Hopefully people globally will begin to take plastic pollution issues more seriously in my lifetime so that the message of the Store becomes irrelevant! At that point perhaps the installation will be acquired by a museum and they will preserve it. I am interested in the idea that the plastic bags used in the Store, which were once destined for landfill, will somehow accrue enough cultural value to make throwing them away impossible.

Several years! I started the process in 2015.

Parody is protected speech in America. However, I would love for one of the corporations that is parodied to engage with the project. It could be a great opportunity to hold them accountable and to work creatively to help define a better path forward.

The short answer is no. The idea of anything being “Zero Waste” is a blunt concept to bypass the depth and reality of the plastic pollution crisis and the difference between corporate and individual responsibility to resolve it. To put it plainly : there is no such thing as zero waste in today’s world. Yes, I pulled thousands of bags from the trash and gave them a new life in the Store. But I also used glue and tape and paint to make the art, and plywood to augment the scenery. My team and I drive and fly to our touring engagements. The audience that visits the Store arrive by car or bus. It's a complicated system that we all live in.

Though I sincerely hope that the plastic objects which were rescued for the Store, its message, and how it is received by our audiences, somehow off-sets the other waste that is inevitably and unfortunately created by turning it into an exhibition, it would be inauthentic to claim that it does. However, the aim of the Store is not to claim purity nor shame anyone.

Rather, the Store poses questions in the hopes that the viewer can walk away with a more thoughtful approach to the way you consume and dispose of plastic in your daily life.