Eradajere Oleita thinks she may have a partial solution to two of our country’s problems: garbage and poverty. It’s called the Chip Bag Project. The 26-year-old student and environmentalist from Detroit is asking a favor of local snack lovers: Rather than throw your empty chip bags into trash (垃圾桶), donate them so she can turn them into sleeping bags for the homeless.
Chip eaters drop off their empty bags from Doritos, Lay’s, and other favorites at two locations in Detroit: a print shop and a clothing store, where Oleita and her volunteer helpers collect them. After they clean the chip bags in soapy hot water, they cut them open, lay them flat, and iron them together.
It takes about four hours to sew a sleeping bag, and each takes around 150 to 300 chip bags, depending on whether they’re single-serve or family size. The result is a sleeping bag that is “waterproof, lightweight, and easy to carry around,” Oleita told the Detroit News.
Since its start in 2020, the Chip Bag Project has collected more than 800,000 chip bags and, till last December, created 110 sleeping bags.
Sure, it would be simpler to raise the money to buy new sleeping bags. But that’s only half the goal for Oleita—whose family moved to the United States from Nigeria a decade ago with the hope of attaining a better life—and her fellow volunteers. “We are devoted to making an impact not only socially, but environmentally,” she says.
Eradajere Oleita’s practice is a powerful reminder that environmental injustice and poverty often go hand in hand. As Oleita told hourdetroit.com, “I think it’s time to show connections between all of these issues.”
【小题1】What is Oleita’s solution to the two problems?| A．Asking snack lovers to donate money. | B．Collecting money to buy sleeping bags. |
| C．Making chip bags into sleeping bags. | D．Organizing volunteers to collect rubbish. |
| A．It was difficult to raise money. | B．She became more ambitious. |
| C．She wanted to live a better life. | D．Sleeping bags were expensive. |
| A．Flexible and Humorous. | B．Generous and thankful. |
| C．Determined and open-minded. | D．Creative and sympathetic. |
| A．Think twice before you leap. | B．Kill two birds with one stone. |
| C．Wisdom and love are a perfect pair. | D．Garbage and poverty often go hand in hand. |
