The problem with plastic

22/4/2013

BYOB – Bring Your Own Bag by Moira Ravenscroft, Wyndlestraw Designs

Last year, our local county imposed a charge on the use of plastic bags in shops. The shop owners were worried that their customers would be upset by the imposition of the bag charge. Instead they found that most people valued the incentive to carry their own bags as a very tangible way of dealing with the problem of plastic in the community.

Of course, in the "olden" days before the single-use plastic shopping bag was introduced, it was standard practice to carry bags to the shops and no-one would have thought about being given a bag of any kind, even a paper bag, to carry their shopping home.

But all that changed in the 70's and 80's with the introduction of plastic shopping bags. Many stores even frowned upon customers using their own bags, and soon it became standard practice for all shops to provide bags at their checkouts for everyone to use.

However, by the turn of the century the problems from this were becoming apparent: landfills were filling up with plastic, bags were polluting the waterways and rivers, and animals both on land and in the sea were being injured.

It was a medium-sized shopping trip of my own in 2007 that made me want to do something about this. I returned from the supermarket with just a moderate shopping load. However, I counted the number of plastic bags that the store clerk had given me and there were 23 plastic bags! The box of eggs were in their own bag, each pot of milk was doubled-bagged etc. Twenty-three bags in just one outing....

On the next shopping trip I took 3 linen bags with me, but soon became aware of their limitations.

a) I didn't have enough of them, so needed to carry more,
b) they are actually quite heavy, so add a fair bit to the weight you need to carry if you are on foot,
and c) they are fabulous for transporting heavy items but quite hopeless for the bulky and awkwardly-shaped items that make up quite a large part of a regular shopping visit.

So I went home and got out my knitting needles. Two days later I had my first knitted shopping bag and by the end of the week I had three to carry to the supermarket. Brilliant. Not a single plastic bag on this trip and everything accommodated with ease.

I made a number more to give to friends and family, and increased my stock so that I had lots of pretty-coloured bags. Well, why not!!

Sarasota Shopper by Moira Ravenscroft, Wyndlestraw Designs

And that was the origin of my BYOB – Bring Your Own Bag pattern! Since I first published this, I have updated the pattern to include four different sizes so you can make just the size of bag that suits you. I also had fun making lots of different variations and you can see some photos of those here.

I have also added a version with long handles, the BYOB Market Bag and then gone on to make a whole collection of knitted bags with fabric liners, including the Sarasota Shopper pictured above from the Southampton Collection.

So especially for today’s celebration of Earth Day, let’s all make some knitted bags ready for our next trip to the supermarket, then we can say with pride: “No plastic bags for me!”

Happy Knitting and Happy Earth Day 2013!

Moira