Editorial: A free gift that is worth so much

Wanganui Chronicle editor Mark Dawson with the bag made by prison inmates.

A gift I received at the Whanganui River Traders market on Saturday was a double blessing.

A strong, good-sized cloth bag was always going to be useful for the groceries, but this freebie also resonated with a couple of causes I hold dear.

The gift came from Plastic Bag Free Whanganui and, as a solid cloth bag, it was estimated it would replace 1000 plastic bags whose single use and casual disposal is impacting badly on the environment and, too frequently, on the health of various creatures that share this planet with us.

Hopefully, I can make it last long enough to make that number 2000.

And my 'Inside Out' bag is helping with the rehabilitation of male prisoners, having been made by inmates at Whanganui jail.

A project run by our Plastic Bag Free collective sees inmates learning some new skills and making a positive contribution to society by making the bags which are then given away.

As the Chronicle has reported, they had already clocked up 709 bags by the start of the week. So that could 709,000 fewer plastic bags that will never break down, that will clog up waterways, that will get into the food chain of humans as well as animals.

It is a wonderful initiative that will, hopefully, give those inmates some sense of value, some sense of contributing to their community, and maybe some sense of a better path to follow when they are released.