The History of the Bag Snagger

The story of the Bag Snagger has been well-documented in story and song. Author Ian Frazier has written pieces in the New Yorker and  Mother Jones about the original idea for the Bag Snagger and has also documented in Outside magazine a trip he and Tim and Bill McClelland took to the Mississippi River after the great floods there in 1993. 

There has been a good deal about the Bag Snaggers in other media, including two interviews on National Public Radio (NPR). The first was done in 1997 when correspondent Melissa Block accompanied the Bag Snaggers around Manhattan and can be heard here. A more recent interview by Melissa on NPR's "All Things Considered" took place in 2007 and can be heard here.

There has also been a hymn written to joys of bag snagging by Bill and Tim McClelland called "Collect Pond." To listen to a recording of "Collect Pond" and read more about it, please click here. 

Please click here to see photos and read about Bag Snaggers and the New York Restoration Project, founded by Bette Midler, which has been a huge supporter of the Bag Snaggers and is doing incredible work in New York City helping to clean up and restore many of the city's more neglected parks and open spaces. 

Below is a clip of Bag Snaggers Ian Frazier and Bill McClelland in action from a CBS "Sunday Morning" segment about plastic bags. This is a QuickTime movie. If you use a PC and don't have QuickTime, you can get it here. (If QuickTime is not your default player, double-click and save it to your desktop, right click and open with Quicktime.) If you use a Mac and have QuickTime installed, just click to watch. You can also watch the video on YouTube.

Testimonials

Many landfill companies, parks services, volunteer organizations and individuals have purchased Bag Snaggers and the feedback has been very positive. 

Here are some of the comments we've received:

"We're extremely happy with the Bag Snagger. We've been using three sets for several years in Bryant Park (adjacent to the main branch of the New York Public Library) and they've been really terrific. We recently did a new planting of 220 younger trees and the Bag Snagger cleans them up in no time. We'd recommend this tool to anyone wishing to keep trees free of bags and litter." 

Director of Operations, Bryant Park, New York City 

"We are the largest landfill in the state of Ohio and we really like the Bag Snagger. It's extremely manageable, has a very good length-to-weight ratio and it's well-balanced so any of our workers can use it easily, even at its full extension of over 40 feet. We've used it consistently now for over a year and it's held up very well. You can put it together and take it apart very quickly. It's just a great tool.

"Last year we had a big wind event here and it was so bad we actually had to shut down the landfill for a short time. There are also 15-20 miles of private property and homes adjacent to us and the wind blew bags and other litter from the landfill into the trees on this property. We have a responsibility to not let these trees get trashed out, so we got out there with everybody using the Bag Snagger and within two days we had the whole area cleaned up. People were standing up at the local town hall meeting saying what a great job we did and thanking us."

District Manager, American Landfill (Waste Management), Waynesburg, Ohio

"The Bag Snagger has been very productive. We even have a "bag snagging specialist" now who works with it exclusively. The Baltimore Sun recently did a feature story about the community districts and pointed out that we were one of the only groups really doing something about the problem of bags in trees. We've even begun doing an inventory of our snagging: earlier this month we got over 90 bags in one day!" 

District Administrator, Midtown Community Benefits District, Baltimore, Mary.

"Our volunteers are having success using the Bag Snagger for specialized snatchings of items from along our Riverwalk, including a huge plastic mattress cover that floated down the Merrimack River in spring semi-flood waters."

Volunteer Program Manager, Lowell National Historical Park, Lowell, Mass.

"The Bag Snagger has been great for us here at Westside. We use it whenever bags get parked in trees and it gets them out right away. The grappling tool and poles have held up very well with consistent use, and we'd recommend it to those with any kind of "bags in trees" problem.

Site Manager, Westside Landfill (Waste Management), Three Rivers, Mich.

"For years, New York Restoration Project has advocated for the citywide use of the Bag Snagger, a nifty device that easily and inexpensively removes plastic bags and other debris from trees.  Based on a patented design by jeweler Tim McClelland, a special graphite version of the Bag Snagger was commissioned for NYRP Founder Bette Midler by her husband, artist Martin Von Haselberg, on the occasion of her 50th birthday.

NYRP uses Bag Snaggers in the field from November to March, when trash is most visible in trees, and is developing a team that will wear identifiable vests and be prepared to report anywhere in the city.

Bette Midler carries her specially designed Bag Snagger in the trunk of her car and often stops to remove fly-away bags and trash from city trees."

from NYRP's web site (www.nyrp.org), New York CityNew York City 

"Any place with any kind of bag problem should definitely get a Bag Snagger. It works great, and the tool is very strong and solidly made. Before this we couldn't do anything about the bag problem we had here—you can't exactly go climbing up trees to get them! We're very happy with it. 

Landfill Supervisor, Allegany County DPW,  Angelica, NY

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