Be a Boomerang Bags Community
Worldwide, around 1 million plastic bags are used every minute, contributing roughly 3.5 million tons of waste per year. That’s just plastic bags alone. When you consider that bottles, cups, containers, utensils, food wrappers and straws haven’t been included in this, it really makes you think! So having access to reusable shared bags which are available in your local community makes a lot of sense.
The Plastic-Free Movement
Boomerang Bags is a community driven initiative, dealing with the issue of plastic pollution at a local level. They’re all about having fun and being creative while at the same time, providing a free and sustainable alternative to plastic bags, which shoppers can borrow when they need a bag rather than using plastic ones, then bring back later.
Dedicated schools, community groups, businesses and volunteers get together to make re-useable ‘Boomerang Bags’ using recycled materials. The Boomerang Bags Community is all about spreading awareness, starting conversations, making friends and working together to shift society’s throw away mentality – one community, needle and thread at a time!
Boomerang Bags relies solely on the generosity, time and creativity of volunteers. If you’d like to join a community, create your own bags or simply donate materials, we strongly encourage you to get involved. All donations help to reduce the impact of plastic bags on the environment, whilst inspiring and unifying craft lovers across Australia. See how you can help here (you’ll even find step-by-step instructions on how to piece together your first Boomerang Bag).
To date, there are 35 Boomerang Bags Communities across Australia and they’ve produced over 28,000 bags, this equates to around 14 million plastic bags being replaced!
Thank you to Into Craft reader Robyn Shipton who alerted us to this great initiative which is happening in her local area, Avalon, NSW. Robyn reports:
“We are trying to do our bit. The shop keepers are all for it, as is the council. We have 7 wooden bins with bags for people to “borrow & bring back”, so if they forget their enviro bags or have bought too much shopping, they can “borrow” a bag and “bring it back” when next in Avalon. We need 4000 to start.
We are making most of the bags and mostly from recycled fabrics or donated fabrics and t-shirts. The ‘nicer’ ones are sold as “bought to support”; a way in which we can fundraise to buy threads, inks for stamping and pay our way. So, for only $10, people can buy a handy, individual, handmade bag.
The group is driven by two very dedicated ladies Laurel and Kirsty who run a weekly bag making workshop at Avalon Recreation Centre. Pittwater Wine and Food Fair was on 1st May and we had yet another stall promoting awareness, drumming up more volunteers to make bags, selling bags and raffle tickets. As always it was very successful for us as the initiative always gets the “wow, what a great idea/ thing to do”.
If you would like to make bags, donate fabrics or assist the Avalon group they can be contacted at boomerangbagsavalon@hotmail.com
In other areas, for more information or to find your local group, or find out how to start one, the website is http://boomerangbags.org
Pictured are images from the recent stall at a local fair.