A small look at a big problem
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A plastic bag rests over a bush in the Bolivian Altiplano plateau. Photographer Eduardo Leal found this to be common in the region.
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Leal got low to take photos of the bushes to make them look like trees. "Turning little bushes into big trees was to show the size of the problem," he said.
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What makes Leal's photos so revealing is the fact that there are no people around. It shows that while the bags may have been discarded long ago, they never completely disappear.
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The photos were all shot at sunset. "I tried to create beauty, because maybe with beauty people will look at (the photos) for more time and maybe they will question themselves," Leal said.
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Plastic bags can be found everywhere on the planet, from the very top of Mount Everest to the deep depths of the oceans, Leal said.
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"Plastic bags -- as small as they are, as light as they are, as cheap as they are, as useful as they are -- they are a big problem," Leal said.
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Leal acknowledges that plastic bag pollution might be the result of weak waste management infrastructures and a lack of education about how to take care of the environment.
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In 2010, the Guinness Book of World Records named the plastic bag the "most ubiquitous consumer item" in the world.
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