Greener Cashton is a local initiative that strives to make Cashton, Wisconsin a greener place to live.

Greener Cashton: Bag Brigade is a new initiative set up locally by Jolly Joiners 4-H Club and other members of the community to minimize single use plastic bags in the village.

Plastic bags are a very useful part of our everyday life, in fact 500 billion are produced every year.  However, they are increasingly under attack for damage they cause to animals and our environment. Not only do sea turtles eat them, but also cows and most animals you can think of.  After they fly away in the wind they can also get washed down into the sewers and cause blockages, as well as just looking very unattractive in the countryside. Everyone uses them though, how can we do without them?

Greener Cashton: Bag Brigade has a solution. We will hold regular, on-going sessions to make cheap, reusable cloth bags out of old t-shirts.  T-shirts are soft, strong and can be laundered to remove germs or bacteria. Individuals or groups that donate t-shirts are welcome to keep the bags made out of their t-shirts, but we plan to collect enough to have bags to leave in local stores that can be given out to customers instead of the regular plastic bags. Customers can then keep these bags and we hope, in time, cultivate the habit of carrying reusable bags with them and using them in place of new plastic bags both within our town and further afield.  The bags will carry the Greener Cashton: Bag Brigade logo.

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Greener Cashton: Bag Brigade will be hosting regularly scheduled "making days" for groups and community members to join in on the making of these reusable t-shirt bags. Sewing experience not required! Contact us to learn about an upcoming Making Day.

Want to help? You can join in!

Here are some ways:

• Let us know how many plastic bags you think you use on a monthly basis

• Set out a box to collect unwanted t-shirts from staff and customers at your business (we will provide the poster to place on the box)

• Receive a supply of t-shirt bags to give out to customers/friends/family starting on Earth Day, 22 April 2019

• If you have old t-shirts imprinted with your business information, consider donating these shirts to be made into bags which will retain your advertising info and be returned to you

• Hang fliers in your business/organization/office to explain to others what Greener Cashton: Bag Brigade is all about

• Consider encouraging customers to use reusable bags by implementing an incentive

• Tell friends and family about Greener Cashton: Bag Brigade by sharing a flier, talking about the initiative, or posting on social media

• Join in on a Making Day and help fold, cut, stamp, pin, sew, or iron some bags

It may seem the issue is too big for us to make a difference, but it can be done.  By encouraging the use of reusable bags the UK reduced the use of new plastic store bags by 86% from 2014 to 2018.  We all need to start somewhere.