There’s an innovative little idea making waves in Gold Coast City and it’s got Burleigh Heads ahead of the rest in terms of their environmental footprint.
Boomerang Bags was launched at the end of May in Burleigh Heads shopping village, a not-for-profit community organisation with a mission to stamp out the use of plastic bags in Gold Coast City.
The initiative works like this – generous Gold Coast City businesses and citizens donate new and recycled materials and brilliant local volunteers sew multiple reusable bags. A bag share ‘Boomerang Bag’ box is set up in any given shopping centre, business district, street or market. Marked with the words “Borrow & Bring Back”, shoppers grab a bag for free and return to the box when they have finished using it.
This local, grass-roots project brings new life to the idea of thinking global and acting local. Community building, sustainability and environmental responsibility are just some of the boxes Boomerang Bags are ticking.
The effect is four fold; customers don’t have to buy reusable bags or remember to bring them shopping, businesses can reduce reliance on supplying bags to customers, the local community is strengthened through the encouragement of a re-use and share mentality and best of all, our city’s landfills and waterways get closer to freedom from plastic bags.
So who’s behind this splendid scheme? Co-founders Tania Potts and Jordyn de Boer say you are! Made for the local community by the local community, Boomerang Bags belongs to us all.
Since a Gold Coast City Council grant kick-started the Boomerang bag concept in June 2013, volunteers at sewing bees have made almost 2500 bags, enabling the launch of Boomerang Bags in Burleigh’s James Street.
Each bag is unique and they’re made from the community’s repurposed doonas, bed sheets and curtains, as well as new fabric donated by Gold Coast City businesses such as Robina’s Coral Homes.
Currumbin RSL generously provided a function room for the weekly sewing bees, Burleigh Men’s Shed have helped build the boxes and groups such as the Country Women’s Association, Silkwood School, the Village Circle, a correctional facility and over 50 individuals have volunteered their time and sewing skills to construct these to-borrow beauty’s.
In addition to bringing eco-brilliance to Burleigh, the team at Boomerang Bags are also working to educate our community and encourage the reduction of plastic use in us all. Hosting screenings of documentary ‘Bag It’, viewers have the opportunity to share in the inspiration for the Boomerang Bags project and learn more about how we all can make a difference to the future of our planet – one bag at a time.
Find out how you can be involved in the Boomerang Bags concept, visit their website, Facebook or Twitter.
