Sewing to Save
Our aim is to enable people to live more sustainably by creating connections, building community and sharing knowledge. The Sewing to Save campaign is a beautiful example of how powerful this approach can be.
Government initiatives to reduce the number of single-use plastic carrier bags has been very effective, however for services such as food banks which support families and individuals by providing groceries, plastic bags are still a necessity.
Volunteers at food banks have reported a significant reliance on plastic carrier bags, with one food bank sharing they use on average 200 plastic bags a week which adds up to 10,000 a year! With just over 2,000 food banks in the UK, this could mean up to 20,000,000 plastic bags are used every year for this purpose alone.
The Sewing to Save campaign intends to help food banks become more sustainable by building an army of sewing volunteers to reuse fabric, for example old curtains, or any other good quality surplus fabric and recycle this into cloth bags! These will then be used to replace the plastic carrier bags and help prevent the material from ending up in landfill. WIN/WIN!
The key to making this campaign scalable and have the most impact is to replicate this model locally and then share countrywide!
Approach your local food bank to engage with them about this campaign, understand what their current requirements for single-use plastic carrier bags is now and if they’d like to address this by joining the campaign
Identify local sewing groups in the area via social media networks (e.g. Womans’ Institute, Rotary or independent craft groups) and invite them to get involved to sew cloth bags for their local food bank
Share the cloth bag pattern, we suggest using the Becon bag pattern which was was introduced by the Becon & District Rotary Club to support the New Forest Basics Bank reduce their reliance on plastic bags. You can find out more about this project and download the pattern here
Enagage with the local community and media to build support for your project, you can access ‘how to’ guides and other supporting materials in our resources section
Cloth bags made Haslemere Food Bank volunteers using the Becton Bag pattern.
A dedicated volunteer from Haslemere Food Bank talks with Mark Carter from the BBC Radio Surrey breakfast show during the 'Make a Difference' segment about Green Earth Plan's 'Sewing to Save' single-use plastic bags campaign.
The Haslemere Food Bank is Going Green!
The Haslemere Food Bank was set up in 2013 to give those in need an extra helping hand with their weekly food shop. The recent events and COVID-19 pandemic have led to a considerable surge in demand for food support and an increase in the demand for the services that they offer.
The food bank jumped at the chance to reduce their reliance on single-use plastic carrier bags through the Sewing to Save campaign and they are now ready to introduce the cloth bags to their local community.
You can hear more about their story by listening to the recorded BBC Radio Surrey ‘Make a Difference’ interview today. Congratulations to everyone involved!
“The volunteers that gave up their time to sew cloth bags for the food bank have been incredible in ensuring that we have enough bags (around 300) to launch this initiative. Thanks to their efforts, we will massively reduce the number of single-use plastic carrier bags that we use each week”
Volunteer - Haslemere Food Bank
EVENTS
Find out about future events
If you would like to volunteer your time and join an organised community action event to benefit the environment, check our events page today! We guarantee you’ll meet like-minded people and learn about how you can contribute to a greener future.
RESOURCES
Help out in your community
Need a helping hand to get started? Then visit our resources pages for information and downloadable guides about ‘how to’ live more sustainably, ‘Sew to Save’, ‘Green Up Your Street’ or even lead your own community project.
Feeling inspired to do more?
Green Earth Plan is all about community action and we can only bring about positive environmental change with your support, either as volunteers or as leaders of projects in your local area.
So if you would like to get involved in any way, shape or form, we can’t wait to hear from you!