Boomerang Bags team get help from Hawke's Bay Regional Prison

Boomerang Bags supporters Anika Eagle, left, Lisa Eagle, Sue Rosacker, Warren Ellery, Polly Fairbrother, Glenys Crawford, and Tim Stevens, owner of Chantal Organics. Photo / Duncan Brown

Boomerang Bags Hawke's Bay has been fast gathering traction since it launched in Hastings last year, recently securing another outlet in Napier and bringing the Department of Corrections on board to help with sewing the reusable fabric bags.

Part of a global initiative to reduce plastic pollution, the Hawke's Bay branch began operating at Cornucopia in Hastings in July last year, and is well on its way to expanding across the region.

The grassroots campaign encourages people to use reusable, recycled fabric bags, that are made by volunteers in the community, and available at distribution points such as shops and businesses.

People can either buy bags to keep, or use ones that are available at the outlets, which are then returned for others to use.

Hawke's Bay resident Lisa Eagle started the campaign in Hawke's Bay and said the service was launched at Chantal Organics in Napier last weekend, and the plan was to open distribution points in Waipawa and Waipukurau in April and then in Wairoa.

"The idea is to eventually set up 15 different distribution points from Wairoa to CHB - and about 22,000 bags would be needed to cover the launches, and then more to cover ongoing needs."

As such, she said having inmates from Hawke's Bay Regional Prison assisting with sewing bags was a great help.

Ms Eagle said about four inmates were initially participating as part of the prison's industry module.

She recently picked up 180 completed bags from the prison, which added significantly to the efforts of the many other volunteers sewing in the community.

"This is a real boost for us and already relieved a lot of pressure to supply the amount of bags that are needed for our distribution points."

As well as giving the inmates a chance to contribute to a community cause, they also gained the opportunity to pick up industrial sewing skills, which could help with future employment.

"It's really huge - we are the first community that's got a prison involved."

She said to date 18 domestic sewing machines had been donated by the public, as well as four industrial/overlocker machines, all fabrics were donated, and all the sewing was done by volunteers.