Co-op Sew-In: When We Were More Vermont Than Vermont

Co-op

Sew-In:

When We Were More Vermont Than Vermont

BY WINTER CAPLANSON

Windham is moving toward joining 14 other Connecticut towns in banning single use plastic bags. The Willimantic Food Co-op, located therein, has been working to increase awareness its shoppers’ awareness about methods for reducing the use of plastic, single-use, and disposable items…but discussion about implementation of a ban has added urgency to the conversation.

To be clear, municipal waste in Connecticut is burned to create electricity at five trash-toenergy plants throughout the state. Despite haunting “Sea of Plastic” social media images, what is collected from your trash bin in this state is not dumped into the ocean or buried in a landfill.

But banning plastic shopping bags isn’t only designed to attack a litter issue and potential impact on wildlife. Single use plastics are nonrenewable resource consumption hogs made using either petroleum or natural gas. They take huge amounts of energy to manufacture and transport across the country. And stray plastic bags that land on roadsides do release dangerous chemicals as they slowly break down.

The problem with simply announcing a ban is that this leaves it up to retailers and shoppers themselves to work out a way to replace them.

Some food markets offer compostable plastic bags created using materials that will theoretically allow the bags to decompose through composting. However, the intensity of light, oxygenation, and consistently high heat required for them to actually decompose is typically only available through municipal “windrow” composting of kitchen waste - which is not currently available in Connecticut.

While paper bags can easily be substituted for plastic at the checkout, paper can’t stand up to damp fruits and vegetables in the produce section. Although it is recyclable, paper has its own environmental impact, too, as production can lead to deforestation and an increase in greenhouse gases.

Your standard-issue reusable shopping bag aren’t ideal either. They’re often are made in China and Vietnam, from heavier and thicker plastic, which takes more energy to produce, then shipped to the USA in fossil fuel burning cargo ships. And few people wash their reusable grocery shopping bags, so they can harbor E. coli and other pathogens.

Well, that’s a downer. How’s a person to choose chard, pick peppers, select celery and bag ‘em up in the produce aisle, guilt free?

Consider this: do you even need a bag?

“Customers may be using plastic bags to group produce items out of consideration for the cashier,” explains Willimantic Food Coop Wellness Associate Cari Nadeau, “People apologize if their unbagged produce gets our checkout counter wet and I say ‘No, I LOVE it that you haven’t put it in a bag! You don’t ever have to put your produce in a bag here!’”

The most environmentally-friendly (and hippest, I might add) produce bag is machinewashable, and handmade…from cloth. If you have a sewing machine and can sew a straight seam, you can make your own.

But what if you don’t?

To that end, Co-op member Eliana Hancock proposed a “Sew-In” where cloth produce bags would be made and given away. And a requisite social media post was made:

Donate your old fabric to the Willimantic Food Coop’s Sew-In!

In an effort to reduce produce plastic bag use, we’re hosting a sewing event where we’ll give cloth produce bags away for free. Accepting fabric donations NOW in the front of the store.

123 Facebook shares later, “Insane amounts of beautiful fabric poured in,” recounts Nadeau.

Hancock invited a friend to come sew, too. She contacted Willimantic Schiller’s Sewing Circle, a local sewing machine and supply shop, and they said they’d donate fabric and send an employee to join in the sewing.

“It was suggested that we could gather and work at someone’s house, but I wanted us to be here at the Co-op, very visible, in the café space in the front of the store. I hoped people would ask us what we were doing, why we were sewing together, so we could talk with customers about it,” said Nadeau.

Co-op staff and working members rounded out the volunteer crew, with four people sewing and four more cutting fabric and snaking in hemp twine drawstrings.

Sewers brought their portable sewing machines and their know-how. “I had a pattern ready, but Eliana arrived with a cardboard template so we cut fabric to that, super-fast. The sewers used whatever methods they preferred to sew three sides and make a channel for a drawstring.

“We made over 100 bags in three hours. People loved this event from start to finish. I really had no idea they were going to be so excited about it,” enthuses Nadeau.

It’s a day we were more Vermont than Vermont.

Not only did customers love the gift of a handmade bag, they loved their co-op a little more for making it.

“I love this!! Great job, Sewists!! Great job,

Co-op!!” - LOLLY NICOL

“This was such a cool

idea! Thank you for the pretty cloth bag and I hope that you make this an annual event.” - AMY PEARSALL

“I still have my produce bags from when we did this at the Meadow Street location 15 years ago!” - CATHERINE GRACE MORIARTY

“This is an awesome idea. Truly promoting green lifestyles.” - Jurneez Farm

“This is so amazing! Grateful to all those who were involved.” - MAGGIE MACHA

“I love The Co-op even more now!”

- AMY LABOSSIERE

“That’s what we want,” confirms Nadeau: “to offer events people can take part in, to contribute, for co-op member-owners to feel connected and involved…to create an atmosphere of change that feels doable, fun, and builds community.”

If shoppers use fabric bags instead of plastic even just once a week, that will eliminate about 200 plastic produce bags a year.

The Willimantic Food Co-op is planning another produce bag Sew-In for March 31.

The Willimantic Food Co-op is located at 91 Valley St, Willimantic, CT. Follow their Facebook page for Sew In and other event listings.