Plastic not fantastic, say Lyttelton locals
‘‘Plastic bags are some of the most pernicious things in the world,’’ Juliet Neill said as she attached handles to another fabric carry bag.
‘‘Especially as far as ocean life is concerned. They get mistaken for squid and jellyfish. I mean, all plastic is killing our marine life, but plastic bags in particular.’’
Together with a troupe of Lyttelton residents, Neill runs Plastic Shopping Bag Free Lyttelton. They sell their bags at the local farmers market and maintain a bag library where people can borrow and return fabric bags.
‘‘It has become so ingrained to use plastic bags, people have become unaware of the alternatives,’’ Neill said.
Similar initiatives across New Zealand hope to reduce the amount of single-use plastic entering the environment. Bag It Raglan holds a monthly sewing bee attended by sewing veterans and rookies alike. Australian initiative Boomerang now has a plethora of Kiwi groups stitching bags to be used and brought back, including groups in Nelson, Wellington and Auckland.
Neill said their group had produced hundreds, if not thousands of fabric bags from donated material.
‘‘Donations come from furnishing places, the Lyttelton garage sale, Creative Junk, Habitat for Humanity, all over,’’ she said.
‘‘Some people come for a bagmaking session just to find out what we’re doing and how to do it so they can go and do it somewhere else.’’
Fellow bag-makers Sue-Ellen Sandilands and Anne Parkinson busily cut and folded fabric during a recent working bee. At full pace, they were able to produce a bag in under 20 minutes.
‘‘Curtaining fabric works well, but we just take any fabric that people offer us,’’ Sandilands said.
Parkinson, originally from Wales, said it was heartening to see New Zealand catch up with her home country.
‘‘People don’t even think twice now about using their reusable bags,’’ she said.
Neill said she was happy some New Zealand supermarkets would ban all single use plastic bags by 2018, ‘‘but I wish the initiative had come from the government so that everybody would be having to phase them out’’.
‘‘I do have some reservations about what they are going to provide as substitutes though, as they might provide these wonderful hessian bags but they are lined with plastic. I would love to see them getting right out of that.’’
Plastic Shopping Bag Free Lyttelton are holding a Christmas bag-making workshop between 1pm and 4pm on December 2. Further details can be found on their Facebook page.
"It has become so ingrained to use plastic bags, people have become unaware of the alternatives."
Juliet Neill, Plastic Shopping Bag Free Lyttelton