Taranaki Daily News

BORROW A BAG

- KRIS BOULT

"We'll take one bag at a time but if it means one less plastic bag is used then that's good."

Lauree Jones

A volunteer at an organisati­on making sustainabl­e shopping bags says they won’t be able to keep up with demand after supermarke­ts announced they were banning plastic bags.

Boomerang Bags Taranaki spokespers­on Lauree Jones said she was pleased with the move by New World and Countdown to get rid of plastic bags by 2018, even if it meant the need for sustainabl­e bags increased.

‘‘It’s a good step in the right direction.’’

Boomerang Bags is a worldwide initiative which gets volunteers to make reusable cotton shopping bags in the hope they’ll be used instead of plastic ones.

Shoppers are encouraged to take one or two of the bags and then return them if and when they can, or keep using them.

Jones said while the project hadn’t been rolled out in Taranaki yet, they weren’t looking at competing with the major supermarke­ts who had their own bags, but instead wanted to install stations at libraries and possibly farmers markets.

‘‘We’ve had a few calls from stores asking how they can get involved,’’ she said. Jones said the supermarke­ts’ ban would mean they’d need to make more bags than anticipate­d.

‘‘Yes, we’ll need lots of help to get lots done but we’re ready,’’ she said.

Jones anticipate­d hundreds of bags would now be needed for the ongoing project.

‘‘We’ll take one bag at a time but if it means one less plastic bag is used then that’s good,’’ she said.

To make the bags more volunteers were needed to help cut, iron or sew.

They are also looking for people who may be able to donate material as well as some ‘handy people’ to help make the stations once locations were finalised.

Jones said the boomerang bags could be made from anything including old sheets, curtains, scrap material and even old t-shirts. ‘‘Just cut off the arms and sew it up to form a bag, it just depends on how creative the person wants to get.’’

Jones said no specific sewing experience was necessary but having a sewing machine was, as the bags took around half an hour to make.

In Taranaki, Jones wasn’t the only one pleased about the supermarke­t ban on plastic bags.

New Plymouth District Council Infrastruc­ture Manager David Langford said having fewer bags would decrease problems at the recycling centre and in the environmen­t.

‘‘Having fewer plastic bags in the environmen­t would be great for our recycling service because even though we don’t accept plastic bags in the kerbside recycling, they still end up in there and get caught on the recycling machinery.

‘‘Fewer bags in daily use would lessen that problem.

‘‘Plastic bags don’t often get into our stormwater and sewage reticulati­on but when they do, they cause machinery failure or blockages because the bags don’t break down.’’

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 ?? PHOTO: GRANT MATTHEW/STUFF ?? Boomerang Bags regional coordinato­r Lauree Jones is looking for more volunteers to help make the sustainabl­e bags.
PHOTO: GRANT MATTHEW/STUFF Boomerang Bags regional coordinato­r Lauree Jones is looking for more volunteers to help make the sustainabl­e bags.

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