Oust plastic bags from Haywood
Volunteers are wanted for a community-wide effort to reduce consumption of single-use plastic bags, with a sew-a-thon planned for Friday, Feb. 11, at the Haywood County Library in Waynesville — or on your living room couch.
A novelty in the 1970s, plastic shopping bags are now an omnipresent product found in every corner of the world. Produced at a rate of up to one trillion bags per year, they are showing up from the darkest depths of the ocean to the summit of Mount Everest to the polar ice caps. Being so widespread, plastic bags are intensifying some major environmental challenges.
A group led by Outdoor Mission Community and area churches will spend Feb. 11 sewing cloth bags out of repurposed materials to distribute free at local grocery stores, with the goal of sewing 1,000 cloth bags to give away on Earth Day, April 22. A centralized pickup and drop-off location for fabric and instructions for at-home sewers is set up at the Sunset Inn at Lake Junaluska.
Volunteers do not need to be experienced seamstresses, tailors or crafters to participate — cutters, folders and distributers are needed too. To join in, call or text Jamie Shackleford at 336.583.9932, or check out the “Bring Your Own Bag Haywood” page on Facebook.
