In the 1999 film "American Beauty," a discarded plastic bag caught in an alleyway whirlwind played a signature role as a sign of awesome beauty and wonder. But in Tanzania, plastic bags are the scourge of the Earth.

"They're blowing in the wind," says Lori Robinson, "tangled in the trees, in fences. They're everywhere--everywhere. It's a really big problem."

Robinson is a Santa Barbara money manager who twice yearly travels to eastern Africa to conduct volunteer work for the Jane Goodall Institute. For part of her stay, Robinson resides in the town of Tenguru, Tanzania, where residents use and discard thousands of plastic bags every day. The bags litter the land in all directions, and they create significant environmental hazards. Locals understand there is a problem. Their homeland is choking on plastic, but what can they do? They have no other way to transport their daily produce from the market to home, and with no reliable trash disposal or recycling system in the region, used plastic bags have become an accepted part of the scenery.

But Robinson has hit upon the simple and perfect solution: Use canvas bags and say no to plastic. In Tanzania, however, this is easier said than done, for canvas bags, or totes, scarcely exist there. They must be imported and distributed, a giant task that Robinson has taken on by herself. In September of 2005, she brought over her first shipment of donated canvas shopping bags, about 300 in total. At the local marketplace in Tenguru, she set up a booth. She displayed her eclectic assortment of the exotic bags and set the price at a mere 20 old plastic bags apiece. Local women responded enthusiastically. They took to the roadsides, cleared several acres of plastic bags, and came rushing back to the market for their prizes.

"We were literally mobbed," recalls Robinson. "These women have no bags, no purses, no shopping baskets--they have nothing--and so they just went crazy for these canvas bags. It's sort of a status symbol, partly because they're from America."

Robinson's most recent bag-distributing mission to Tenguru took place in February. This time around Robinson upped the required number of plastic bags to 25, yet she easily distributed all of her 1,100 canvas bags in two one-hour sessions at the local marketplace. The enthusiasm of the locals has inspired Robinson with the hope that plastic bags will eventually disappear from the local fields and the roadsides and that Tenguru, Tanzania will become a model of progressive, sustainable living for rural Africa.

Her work so far has been promising. In the past year, Robinson has personally received and transported to the Arusha, Tanzania dump approximately 33,500 plastic bags. But much more significant, says Robinson, is the simple fact that 1,400 shoppers in the local economy are now equipped with canvas totes, and she estimates that in course of the next year these people will spare the region of Tenguru more than 400,000 plastic bags.  

"These women are actually ridding their community of plastic bags," says Robinson. "And the simplicity of this project is what makes it so effective. Totes that would otherwise end up in our garbage dumps are replacing plastic bags that would otherwise end up on the roadsides of Africa."

Robinson believes that just 5,000 more canvas bags delivered to Tenguru will saturate the region with the reusable items. After that she would like to direct her efforts to other realms of the Dark Continent and even the world. In fact, Robinson has friends in Kenya who are ready to mobilize, receive a shipment of American canvas bags, and get them promptly into the hands of local shoppers.

But Robinson needs help. Her project at the moment is at a standstill, with many hundreds of perfectly good canvas bags stationed idly in her Santa Barbara garage, for Robinson has no practical means of delivering them to Africa. Approximately 300 canvas bags will fit into an individual traveler's personal luggage before the airline charges an oversized baggage fee. Thus, Robinson is asking for assistance from anyone who may be traveling to East Africa and who would like to help with the project. With advance notice, she says, she can arrange for a vehicle to meet bag-toting travelers at either Kilimanjaro Airport near Arusha, Tanzania, or at Jomo Kenyatta Airport in Nairobi, Kenya. Robinson's project holds wonderful potential in profoundly altering the East Africa landscape, but only if volunteers come forward to help.

Meanwhile, the plastic bag problem in rural Tanzania is tremendous. The majority of shoppers still go without canvas and they shop for fresh produce daily. They utilize a plastic bag or two, then discard them into the wind. The bags drift over the terrain like alien tumbleweeds and ultimately find lodging in the shrubbery or tree branches. In time grazing animals discover the bags, a real treat for goats and cows. They enjoy eating bags, but unfortunately they may expire as a result. In fact, plastic bag ingestion is the most common cause of death in rural African livestock. Many families depend heavily on their animals for milk, and a dead cow or goat may represent a devastating loss. The bags promote disease as well. A Kenyan scientist recently observed that the stagnant water which pools in the folds of discarded plastic bags breeds mosquitoes and, in turn, malaria.

This may paint a displeasing picture of the African landscape, but Robinson points out that the bag problem is a worldwide issue, with America being no exception. In our closets, pantries and basements, millions of perfectly good canvas bags hang unused from doorknobs and coat hooks. Shoppers go to the store empty-handed and return with their goods in convenient, disposable plastic bags. They load the fridge, stock the shelves and toss the bags neatly to the wind. Well, to the garbage man. The bags go off to the landfill and the problem goes unseen--minus the innocent straggler caught in an alleyway whirlwind.

"We're not innocent in America," Robinson says gravely. "We use so many plastic bags, and the truth is that less than three percent of our plastic bags are recycled. The rest of them go to the dump where they never disintegrate. And using paper bags is not a better option because more resources are used to make a paper bag than a plastic one. The best option in America and everywhere is to use your own canvas bag."

And in Tenguru, Tanzania, that's what people are doing. At least they would if they could. While 1,400 local women treasure their beautiful American canvas shopping bags, many more eagerly await Robinson's return in August, hoping that this time she will finally have enough bags for everyone.