Having fun good for planet

BRAND NEW BAG: Sally Collings, 4, gets help from mum, Nichola, to prepare her print at the Sarjeant holiday programme. PHOTO/STUART MUNRO

Re-usable bags are good for the environment as well as fun to make, and Sarjeant on the Quay has offered its successful school workshops as part of its holiday programme last week.

Pre-schoolers to high school students joined the workshops and took home bags printed with their own designs to use as alternatives to undesirable plastic bags.

Tutor Andrea Gardner said the workshops included some education about single-use plastic bags and their environmental impact before participants got to the fun part of creating their designs and screen-printing them on to cotton tote bags.

"Plastic bags have been banned in India because there were millions of them discarded in the streets.

"They were blocking drains, causing flooding and all kinds of problems."

Sally Collings, 4, had completed two designs for her bag: a butterfly and a ladybird.

"It will be my swimming bag to take to the pool and the beach," she said.

Rosa Spence, 13, an experienced screen printer after participating in a similar workshop at school, said she enjoyed the process and was keen to have another go.