Project Ideas  SELL OR DISTRIBUTE
REUSABLE BAGS
Providing people with free or affordable reusable bags can be a great way to get more people in the habit of saying no to plastic. If you always remember to tell people about your project's goal—to rid our world of plastic bags that pollute our communities, choke wildlife and fill up our landfills—your reusable bag sales can raise group funds and awareness! Here are some ideas for getting the bags into the hands of people who will use them: - Order the Roots & Shoots Reusable Bags and sell them as a fundraiser.
- Offer people a bag in exchange for signing a "Pledge to Pack" form, created by group leader Anne Goldfeld, promising to use reusable bags as much as possible. You keep the pledge to include in a letter to your legislator, and the signer keeps the top portion of the form to post on his/her refrigerator as a reminder to always bring a bag to the store.
- Use order forms to ask people to sponsor your project by purchasing a bag. Collect money ahead of time using this form, then purchase the bags.
- Find a local sponsor to cover your purchase costs in exchange for having their corporate logo or website silkscreened on the bag.
- Use bags as raffle prizes. Sell tickets for $1-2 (USD) each.
- If you are uncomfortable making sales, try asking for a donation instead and giving the bag as a thank you gift.
- Partner with a local vendor to sell the bags at farmers' markets. Or fill the bags with locally grown produce (oranges, apples, etc.) and sell them together.
- Why wrap a present with paper that will get thrown away? Give it in a package that can be reused. Raise funds by selling reusable bags to others as gift bags around holiday times.
- Send out a Press Release or notice to local newspapers to promote sales or projects in your community and raise awareness at the same time.
BE CRAFTY AND GREEN
Decorate Your Own Bag
As part of a public awareness and education effort, make bags available for children (and the young at heart) to personalize with paints and markers. Corridor Chimp Corps R&S group members in Iowa tie-dyed their bags! This project could be offered as part of an Earth Day event, nature festival, children's library program, outside a grocery store or as a school art project. Sell the bags or give them away with donations welcome.
Sew a Bag
If your group members are handy with a sewing machine, create your own eco-friendly bags by reusing cloth scraps. Give them to women at a family shelter. Women in shelters often have to walk or take the bus for shopping, and those plastic bags just do not hold up. Let them know that they are part of the pollution solution, too! Check out this site for directions to sew your own simple tote.
Create Your Own Produce Bags
Instead of using plastic bags in the produce aisle, make your own reusable bags for greenbeans, mushrooms, etc. You could offer one with each cloth bag you sell! Try this easy pattern for net produce bags on Julia Butterfly Hill's webpage.
| 
