Boomerang Bags initiative calls for more volunteers to help Dungog rid plastic bags

The Boomerang Bags initiative, which started in August this year, aims to replace all plastic bags in the town with 2,500 reusable fabric bags.

The focus is to reduce the amount of plastic bags that end up in the environment and waterways.

People borrow the bags bag from IGA or the newsagents, and either keep using them or return them.

The bags have been created at various sewing bees with the help of the Tzu Chi Foundation.

Boomerang Bags organiser Michelle Dado-Millynn said they were now looking for more volunteers to help out.

She said they would like more people to help sew the bags, but that people can also assist in other ways such as cutting and ironing.

The call for help comes as a catch 22, as it means that people are embracing the initiative and using the bags.

“Everybody seems to love them,” Ms Dado-Millynn said. “The bags  go very quickly.”

“The overwhelming majority of people are very supportive.”

With the bags in high demand, Ms Dado-Millynn said she wanted to remind people to either use the bags or return them so someone else can.

“We’re really, really trying to ask people not to leave them lying around at home,” she said.

Prior to the initiative, 2500 plastic bags were given out at Dungog IGA every day.

“That’s a scary fact,” Ms Dado-Millynn said.

Each plastic bag that is swapped for a Boomerang Bag is making a difference, Ms Dado-Millynn said.

“Just knowing that 700 bags are in the community now, that’s got to have brought that figure down,” she said.

“However it triggers and works to get people to stop using plastic bags is a win,” she said.

She hoped people thinking about how they use plastic bags will lead to a change in the way people use disposable items such as straws and drink bottles as well.