Three years ago Sue Bickerton saw a sign in her local community centre looking for volunteers who could sew.
With a knack for sewing and seeking an activity to fill her spare time Sue expressed her interest and was sent home with a bag full of fabric to work on – almost instantly she became hooked.
Several years later and Sue now coordinates the group of 12 volunteers as part of the Leopold branch of the global Boomerang Bags initiative.
Boomerang Bags was created in 2013 in response to the impact of single-use plastics on the planet with the aim to divert postconsumer materials into reusable bags to replace plastic bags.
Since the statewide lightweight plastic bag ban came into effect in November 2019 the initiative has also helped people incorporate reusable bags into their daily lives.
“It’s to stop the use of plastic bags even the current ones at supermarkets ” Sue said.
“You just have to ask the girls at the supermarket and they say they see our bags all the time – which is really good.”
So far the group has given new life to old curtains bed sheets and even old banners and flags donated by the City turning them into bags that can be used again and again.
"The City was very kind and gave us all of these old flags that they had I think weve made about 500 or 600 bags from them " Sue said.
Every Tuesday and Thursday the group meet at the City’s Leopold Community Hub and get to work on their goal of creating two bags per Leopold household – which Sue worked out to be 10 000 bags.
For a group of 12 volunteers sewing two days a week it may seem like an unattainable goal but it’s one well within grasp as the group has already created 6 300 bags.
Sue credits this significant achievement to the time and dedication of each volunteer. “To me it’s the volunteers that do the work it’s the volunteers that I am so grateful for that see the vision and they are the ones that need to be made the heroes. I’m just the coordinator. They sit there and they do the work ” Sue said.
Sue also thanks the Leopold Community Hub for its support stating that without it Boomerang Bags “wouldn’t be where we are now".
As each bag is created it then makes its way back for free to the community often dropped in the letterboxes of Leopold residents by Sue personally or by one of many volunteers.
“The community is good enough to give us the fabric so we should be able to give back ” Sue said.
To keep this sustainably-minded group busy and to help reach its goal fabric donations are always welcome. Sue encourages donations of cottons Manchester and linens with the group unable to use silky sheer or stretchy fabrics.
And if you’d like to volunteer your sewing skills for a cause that helps the planet by helping reduce waste that’s something Sue welcomes as well. “It’s nice to get new faces come and join us...I’ll get more machines ” she said.
For information on the Boomerang Bags initiative visit the Boomerang Bags website and to make fabric donations visit the Leopold Community Hub.