A great idea which started Down Under:
.
.
.
There’s a group in Ottery St Mary:
Futures Forum: Plastic Free Ottery > Boomerang Bag Project
.
And there’s news from the Transition Town group Turn Lyme Green:
.
BOOMERANG BAGS have arrived
After several months in the making, it’s time to launch Boomerang Bags!
Boomerang Bags is a project started in Australia 6 years ago with the aim to make reusable bags from recycled fabric reducing the need for new plastics and protecting our environment in the long term. By using a boomerang bag, we can say ‘No, thank you’ to a plastic bag and keep fabric out of landfill. There are groups around the world making these bags, the one closest to us, in Dorchester, presented a bag to Prince Charles last May. Great publicity!
Using donated fabric – old curtains, that leftover fabric tucked away in bottom drawers –a local team of 18 stitchers have been sewing bags over the past few months. As we meet to sew them, we have been making new friends and promoting a strong sense of community. Every bag illustrates how communities can come together for creative change which has positive effects on our environment – making bags, not waste. Every bag is unique made from different fabrics but each has the same patch sewn on it with the boomerang logo – ‘borrow and bring back’. The bags are being distributed for free to B&Bs, hotels and shops which join up so that their visitors and customers can use them and be asked to bring them back to any local location in the scheme.
We ran a poster competition for Woodroffe and our two primary schools – St Michael’s and Mrs Ethelston’s. Over 200 children took part and prizes are being awarded at the launch tomorrow, Thursday 24th. We were overwhelmed by the interest, enthusiasm and care put into each entry. Every poster showed love for the environment. The winning posters will help identify the shops and locations taking part in the scheme. All of them will be displayed at the Malthouse Gallery, Town Mill for our Pop Up Sustainable Lyme Regis exhibition. We hope to see you there! Sincere thanks to the Town Mill and its trustees for hosting this event. And also to our local schools for their support.
We are grateful for the support of many businesses and hope that more may join the scheme in the coming weeks. The TIC, the Library. Shops: Primary Colours, Aroma, The Galley Café, Red Panda, Boylos, The Sanctuary Bookshop, Ryder & Hope. Hotels: The Royal Lion, Mariners, Kersbrook B&Bs: Dorset House, Clovelly, Bay Leaf Cottage, Ammonite Cottage, The Albany, Charnwood, Skerries