TOPRAK PETQ CHI—WHAT IS IT?
Just three decades ago, disposable packaging was a foreign concept to the people of the former Soviet Union. But when it collapsed in the early nineties, countries like Armenia welcomed a new economy into its borders and with it, the now-widespread practice of wrapping consumer goods—once purchased locally, sustainably, and sans plastic—in disposable, single-use materials.
Thirty years embracing a throwaway society has taken its toll. While other nations have come to develop the infrastructure to manage the absurd quantities of waste now being produced, Armenia—a tiny country in the South Caucasus—has not come very far. There republic lacks even a single sanitary landfill. From the waters of Lake Sevan, the nation’s only body of water, to the crevices of historic Mount Aragats, one finds the skeletons of a disposable economy strewn across a once pristine landscape.
Plastic bags in particular are a symbol of this movement. While they ravage the natural landscape, in grocery stores, they are offered to patrons as a luxury. To refuse them in public was, until very recently, frowned upon. Normalizing the act of rejecting single-use waste was an essential step forward. This is why in 2017, I launched a grassroots project called Toprak Petq Chi, translating to “I don’t need a bag.”
It started with the idea to create pop up stands near shopping areas, where local passersby are invited to create their own reusable bags. Artists got involved, contributing creative designs that would make the alternative to plastic even more attractive. It quickly became a viral hashtag. The project ended in 2017.
AWARDS
Recipient of Awesome Foundation Grant, 2016
Recipient of Trust for Mutual Understanding, 2017
LEFT TO RIGHT: Raffi Berberian, Marine Thaler, Grace Cartwright, Sofia Manukyan, Anush Grati, Florence Low, Gayane Davtyan, Me, Mayranush Gevorgyan, Vahe Markosian (Photo by Raffi Berberian)
OUR DESIGNS
Perhaps the most compelling component of this project lies in the designs that don our custom-made bags. Trash is an aesthetic problem, as well as an environmental one, so it was important to use the alternative to plastic as a way to showcase the creativity and ingenuity in the human spirit. During our public events, people are invited to spray paint their own blank bags with the design of their choice. Each design has been created specifically for this project, submitted by artists and graphic designers fromYerevan to LA—people who have contributed their creativity to help incentivize reusable bags in Armenia.
