The wooden box, constructed and painted by Marcellus faculty and students, is filled with reusable, fabric shopping bags that were hand-stitched by student and community volunteers. The sacks are free for Nojaim’s customers to use – with the hope they either return them to the store or continue using them in lieu of single-use, disposable plastic bags.
The first seeds for the project were planted last spring when Marcellus High School science teacher Ellen Spencer saw a video on the Facebook group #PlasticFreeFridays. The video highlighted some of the devastation visited on the environment by single-use plastic bags. It also discussed the large amount of textile waste that piles up in U.S. landfills. A grassroots Australian group called Boomerang Bags produced the video to raise awareness of the effects and discourage the use of disposable plastic shopping bags.
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