One of the hottest consumer trends of the moment is also a fashionable one.
As more people reduce, reuse and recycle, the hip way to declare that “plastic ain’t your bag” is to replace it with reusable shopping totes.
From neighborhood markets to top fashion magazines, everyone is coming out with their take on the eco-friendly sack, because using them is a small change that makes a big difference to the planet, says Elizabeth Rogers, an environmental consultant and author of “The Green Book” (Random House, 2007).
Supermarkets now encourage shoppers to B.Y.O.B. by offering cash for every plastic bag brought back to the store. Clothing boutiques such as Buffalo Exchange in Denver and Boulder participate in programs like “Tokens for Bags.” Shoppers accept charitable tokens instead of bags, then Buffalo Exchange gives a nickel to the customer’s favorite charity. The program has generated more than $300,000 for nonprofits since 1994 and saved 6 million bags.
Even celebrities are sauntering around Tinseltown with their favorite green totes instead of designer shopping bags. Among Hollywood favorites is a “Make Love Not Trash” bag designed by former model Martha Lee to benefit the Alzheimer’s Association.
“Designers who are using their talents to create fun and cute bags like these are really the ones responsible for helping create a desire or incentive to use reusable bags,” says Rosalynn Basford, a Los Angeles beauty and fashion publicist who sometimes goes grocery shopping just to show off her eco-chic shopping tote.
Environmental experts say each year 500 billion to a trillion bags are used worldwide but only 1 percent are recycled. Plastic bags never biodegrade, making them a major landfill problem, and are made from polyethylene, a nonrenewable petroleum byproduct.
Reusable totes also appeal to a creative environmentalist crowd. Instructions for making your own green bag are among the most popular videos at , a New York-based DIY website.
“You are taking something that you already own and might even have considered throwing away and giving it a new use,” says Corinne Leigh, ThreadBanger’s co-executive producer. “People get more excited about using stuff they’ve made themselves.”
Sheba R. Wheeler: 303-954-1283 or swheeler@denverpost.com
MORE: The writer blogs about making the switch to reusable totes.
Weekend project: An eco-chic bag
Popular statement, personal style
Here’s a chance to be creative and make an environmental statement at the same time. Instead of buying one of the many reusable shopping totes in stores these days, look around for old pillowcases, fabric scraps, clothes or even other plastic bags. Then use those materials to make a homemade, personalized shopping tote. Leigh and Rob Czar, hosts of the “ThreadBanger” show at , shared these steps for making a tote from old plastic bags.
SUPPLIES
Plastic bags — Use the crinkly kind from the grocery store.
Iron
Ironing board or other hard surface
Scissors
Waxed paper or regular printer paper
Work space that is well-ventilated
DIRECTIONS
Step 1: Prepare your plastic “fabric”
If there is any type of writing or printing on the bag, you must turn it inside out. Otherwise, the ink will melt off during this project.
• Cut off the bag handles.
• Cut off the bottom edge of the bag and smooth out the wrinkles. You will have two layers of plastic at this point.
• Fold the bag in half twice so you have eight layers of plastic, making for a great fused “fabric.” You can fold it into a square or a rectangle.
Step 2: Fuse the plastic
Open all the windows. Turn your iron on and determine what temperature works best.
• Sandwich your folded plastic between two sheets of waxed or printer paper and start ironing. Keep the iron moving. It takes 15 to 20 seconds on each spot for the plastic to fuse together.
• Flip the piece over and do the same to the other side.
• If there are any bubbles in your fused plastic, keep ironing. Bubbles are weak spots and will tear over time.
• Press a book on top of the sandwich for about 15 seconds right after you are done ironing. The resulting new fabric is easy to cut and sew.
Step 3: Assemble your bag
For a small shopping bag, you will need eight fused squares for the body of the bag and two fused rectangles for the handles. For a large shopping bag, you will need 12 fused squares for the body of the bag and four fused rectangles for the handles.
• Overlap the squares and sew them together using a zigzag stitch: four squares for the front, four squares for the back. (For larger bags, use more fused plastic squares on each side.)
• When you are sewing the plastic together, do not go over the same spot more than once. This will prevent the plastic from becoming weak or breaking.
• Place the front and back sides of your bag together with the fronts facing each other. Sew a seam down both sides and across the bottom.
• Cut off any excess material outside the seam.
• “Square” the bottom of the bag by creating a triangle with the two corners, sewing a zigzag stitch from one side to the other and cutting off the excess.
• Turn the bag right side out.
• Fold the top of the bag in to create a simple hem and sew it down using a zigzag stitch.
• For the handles, take one of your rectangles and fold the two sides inward. Then sew a zigzag stitch down both sides. Repeat this step for the second handle. (For a larger bag, sew two rectangles together and then proceed.)
• Attach one to the front and one to back as shown.
