Gran-tastic! Grannies come together to rid town of plastic bags with their knitted eco-friendly alternatives
A group of pensioners are doing their big to fight scourge of plastic bags by stitching together their own fabric shopping bags that are then handed out free of charge to shoppers in their home town.
So far the group of old ladies have made over 500 bags, which have gone some way to helping them achieving their goal of ridding the town of Nowe Warpno, which lies just a stone’s throw from Germany in the north west, of plastic bags.
“We are making sure our bags are available in the shops in the area,” wrote the pensioners on Facebook.
The bags are made from any material the ladies from the Senior’s Club can get their hands on including old curtains, bedding, tablecloths and even discarded trousers.
“We will keep on sewing the bags as long as there is a need to eliminate plastic bags, and until we become the first municipal area in Poland that works on behalf of the ecology.”
The pensioners wrote on Facebook that they were 'making sure our bags are available in the shops in the area.'
The bags are made from any material the ladies from the Senior’s Club can get their hands on including old curtains, bedding, tablecloths and even discarded trousers.
Each bag is unique because the ladies make them on their own machines and they all are given away free.
Locals donate the material instead of throwing it out with the rubbish.
“Anyone can come and choose a reusable material bag,” Zofia Szlacheta, the initiator of the project, told TVN news.
The pensioners have so far stitched together over 500 fabric bags and now say they want everyone in the area to have one.
“And they can be sure that each bag is unique because the ladies from the Senior Club make them on their own machines and they all are given away free.”
Locals donate the material instead of throwing it out with the rubbish.
The ladies of the club want everyone in Nowe Warpno and its surrounding area to have a bag so they will have to produce 1,670—the town’s population--if everybody is to get one.
But, said one senior, the pressure of production is already taking its toll.
The ladies say they will continue sewing the bags as long as there is a need to eliminate plastic bags.
“I work on an old machine and it has limited capabilities,” said Jadwiga Pałka, who has already made 170 bags.
“It’s already lost one engine because it couldn’t take the strain so I had to buy a new one for it.”
