BRING YOUR OWN BAGS
South African shoppers on average use 500 bags per shopper per year. The vast majority go into landfill or end up in the rivers and oceans.
The Anglican Church of Southern Africa has embraced bringing your own bag as a simple step that we can all take to make a difference to reduce our plastic usage.
Here are a few ideas that have been embraced.
St Michaels Bryanstown
St Michaels embraced the idea as an income generation project for unemployed people. So far they have sold over 200 bags with beautiful material such as Shweshwe. A positive spin off is that the parish that organises goody bags for clergy widows and retired clergy ordered 140 of the cloth bags to use instead of buying plastic gift bags!!! Now the bags will be re-used as shopping bags and an additional gift. Rev Martha Gordon
The Cathedral, Grahamstown
The cathedral and students group embraced the project with decorating shopping bags and sold them at their Cathedral Fair. Canon Claire Nye Hunter
St Andrews, Newlands
They have designed their own bag to encourage people to take them to the shops and inspire others. Meagan Hughes
#bringyourownbag
#beatplasticpollution
#rethinkthebag
