About Leftoverbags.com (or, "What is this wacky website all about anyway!?)
Leftoverbags.com is an anomaly of epic proportions. It is a work of
friendship, caring, humor, hardship, and connection. It is more than
just a web site about bags; it is a web site about people who care
about the world.
In the Spring of 2004 Jon Baker, originally from rural Viola Wisconsin but residing in Seattle, told his idea of making a web site about lefoverbags to one of his best friends Robin Lee from the neighboring town of La Farge. They were at a music festival (Moe’s Summer Camp) in Chillicothe Illinois when Jon muttered to Robin “I’m gonna make a website about leftoverbags…” Robin was not sure if he should believe him as the two them often lie to each other for entertainment.
The next day the festival was evacuated due to a tornado storm that raged through the area like a hippy killing locomotive. Jon, Robin, and their friends were forced to rent a hotel room and finish off their weekend party. As the night progressed and the bottles got lower and lower, Jon started mumbling about bags, taking pictures of bags, generally obsessing with bags. Robin thought it was funny and started joining in. The two of them pointed out every leftoverbag in the room and swore at them. Leftoverbags.com had been born.
Once becoming borderline obsessed with their new realization they rarely stopped talking about it. Where they used to chit-chat, over the phone or through email, about old friends, what they were doing, how their mothers were; they were now talking about how many bags they saw, where they saw them, and how angry it made them. Robin started drawing pictures of them and writing poems and Jon continued to develop the site, and they both babbled incessantly about leftoverbags to their friends and family and anyone stranger they came across. But people listened.
Everyone could relate to the tales of the leftoverbag boys. They nodded their heads and shared stories about all of the bags that they had in their house and all of the bags they saw stuck in trees. People did relate and people wanted to do something about it, and people did.
Why bags? The byproduct from American over-consumption is often ignored, pushed aside and hidden. Jon and Robin want to stop that. Leftoverbags become a symbol of a much larger problem; a bag in a tree is more than just a bag in a tree, someone had to not care enough to let that bag fly into it, and just as many have to not care just as much not to try to get it down. Leftoverbags become a mascot for an idol society.
The first “Qualtiy-Reusable-UNleftoverbags” was sold in 2005. Amazing modern technology allows every-day guys make extraordinarily-fashionable, reusable bags. The original bags were small, white, and expensive, but they had a picture that Robin had drawn, of a sad snail with a cigarette in his way. They had started saving the world, one bag at a time.
Why wacky art? Robin started painting wacky art in winter of 2004 and didn’t really stop, he’s a little crazy about it. Most of the images are simple, colorful and environmentally geared so they thought it’d be a good idea to slap them on the bags to generate some interest in the topic. It did.
Over the years leftoverbags.com has made a lot of friends, “Friends of the Leftoverones” as they’re referred to. As Jon Baker originally intended, people of all walks of life relate and understand what its like to live in a world of leftovers and often take comfort that there are others like them who see a common problem and want to see it change. It helps that Jon Baker and Robin are pretty friendly guys that figure it’s not worth saving the world if you’re not having a good time in it.
So what’s in the future for leftvoerbags.com? Who knows? Jon and Robin still live in completely different parts of the country which makes progress slower than they would like but it also spreads the word of the bag farther and wider. The odds are they will keep doing what they’re doing, picking up bags, telling other people to pick up bags, grumble about bags, and try to stop them once and for all. They hope you can help them on their quest by telling your friends not to be jerks and leave bags leftover like some leftoverbag leaving asshole, not taking so many bags at the store (perhaps by bringing your own quality-reusable-unleftoverbag), and picking any leftoverbag you see trying to devastate our precious earth.
Now you see why it is The Ultimate Experience?
Read about leftoverbags.com charitable events.