Bag ladies with a purpose

Every Monday the mostly retired ladies get together for a chinwag, a cuppa and to do their bit to save the environment by making upcycled fabric shopping bags which they give to shops in town to provide free to customers.

In two years, Kingston SE Small Steps has made more than 14,000 reusable shopping bags and 8000 produce bags in an effort to reduce plastic bag use in their town.

Living in a coastal town, the ladies are also particularly keen on ensuring plastic waste doesn't make its way into rivers and the ocean.

The 15 environmentally-minded volunteers make the upcycled bags out of donated materials such as curtains, pillowcases, sheets and doona covers, as well as upholstery fabric scraps and samples. While some volunteers sew, others cut, turn handles, cut threads or iron.

The group is never short of donated fabric and local organisations and individuals have also donated sewing machines and an overlocker.

The project has been so successful that local supermarkets have reported a huge reduction in the number of multi-use plastic bags being bought. Single use plastic bags have already been phased out in the state.

Project facilitator, retired teacher Liz Wingard, said Small Steps had become much more than a sewing project. They are now a social group, and though members get together on Mondays, some continue to make bags at home during the week.

The average age of members is 79, with some in their 90s.

One problem the group identified was that many people forget to take the fabric bags out shopping with them, and as a result pick up another one at the check-out, ending up with a stash in a cupboard at home.

So it has introduced an "amnesty". Locals can return the old or dirty shopping bags and the volunteers will wash and send them back out for shops to give away again.

"We never thought we would be making this many - it kind of got out of hand," Liz said.

Tins are left at participating shops, with shoppers invited to give a gold coin donation. All monies raised go to community projects.

Tourists and visitors also get the shopping bags and so take them home with them, helping to spread the anti-plastic bag message.

Small Steps members hope to make bunting from recycled fabrics to replace balloons and other traditional plastic decorations, and also want to buy a plastic shredder that would allow coloured plastic bottles to be melted down and used to create new products.

The ladies of Small Steps have kindly shared their shopping bag pattern with readers of The Senior. Visit: newsnow.io/story/7458525