 |
How the Bag Ladies was formed
After hearing many travellers talk of plastic shopping bag levies or retailers only offering cloth bags overseas, a public meeting was called in Golden Bay, chaired by Green Party MP Mike Ward (centre) with the intention of investigating a similar initiative.
Four brave women decided to take on the mission of reversing this wasteful trend in their community, employing the 'think global, act local' ideology. They decided to give the campaign a year, as people's reluctance to give up their bag habits were obvious from the start.
The misconception that plastic shopping bags are free and harmless was overcome with a series of events used to educate the public, in an entertaining way.
The campaign began with sponsor Lone Star Farms paying for 1,000 cloth bags that were given to residents and visitors on Takaka Hill as they entered the Bay on January 1st 2005.
Following that, surprise visits from the 'Good Green Fairy" rewarded shoppers using their own shopping containers with wonderful donated prizes; a BAG art Competition was run with $500 prize money donated by the Golden Bay Community Board; Zero Waste funding was gained from Tasman District Council for an educational programme including cloth bag painting in all of the Golden Bay schools, and the local council was also co-operative in supplying a free cloth bag to each family.
Now retailers in the Golden Bay town of Collingwood have taken the step of committing themselves to become totally plastic shopping bag free, perhaps to avoid another visit from the bag ladies....
Our message to other communities, is to give it a go, ias it will give all the community a sense of pride and achievement !! People like to know what individual efforts they can take to cut down on waste, and getting behind this campaign is a very simple first step.