Hobsons Bay Boomerang Bags will feature at a stall at Altona’s Logan Reserve on Australia Day to raise awareness about how people can reduce their reliance on plastic bags.
Marilyn Olliff started the reusable cloth bag initiative in Hobsons Bay. They are known as ‘Boomerang Bags’ because you borrow and bring back a bag from a box at Coles supermarket or Altona library – with four more boxes waiting to go into other locations.
Ms Olliff said single-use plastic was one of the biggest contributors to pollution in the earth’s waterways and oceans.
“Part of our project is to raise awareness amongst the community to reduce their use of single-use plastic,” she said.
“There’s about 50 Boomerang Bag communities around Australia, so we’re only one of those. We’ve made several hundred bags to date.
“We’ve had requests from other places to put a Boomerang Bag box outside, but we’re having to make a lot more bags before we can put them into circulation.”
Bags are made by locals from upcycled donated fabric.
“This is an activity that builds community through the making of the bags,” Ms Olliff said.
“It reduces waste to landfill and it generally raises awareness about how important it is not to let plastic escape into our oceans and damage our wildlife.” Details: facebook.com/groups/HobsonsBayBoomerangBags
