A group of five women started discussions in my home in February 2015 about starting up a creative recycling group.
The name, Creative Recycling Augusta, was decided on, and before long we began making shopping bags from recycled and some donated fabrics. The majority of the fabric was and still is sourced from local outlets such as the Lions and Red Cross. The group now meets at Augusta Uniting Church.
Our goals are to share ideas about recycling; to care for each other, our community and the environment; and to operate as a not-for-profit, community group with any funds surplus to our needs to be donated to an agreed community group or charity.
We now make over 15 different items from fabric, t shirts, paper and glass containers. However, it has been our concern for the damage done by the accumulated plastic in our waste that has inspired us to continue with recycled and reusable shopping bags.
We recently held several bag making workshops with other members of the community joining us. This was inspired by the recent ban on lightweight, single use plastic shopping bags.
An approach was made to Augusta IGA to stock a supply of Creative Recycling bags and we are delighted that they agreed to take 50 bags on trial. As they are available for just $2, we hope that there will be an option for us to provide more bags when our stock builds again.
Patti Foster