Denison Chamber Of Commerce issued the following announcement on Mar. 10.
The Crawford County Women in Business Impact Organization (WIBIO) is excited to announce that they will be launching their new “Go Green & Shop Local” initiative later this month! The goal for this project is to encourage citizens to “go green” by reducing the number of plastic bags used and to instead use reusable cloth bags that are more environmentally friendly. Another goal is to inspire people to shop locally.
WIBIO members will be giving out the reusable cloth tote bags on Saturday, March 14th before and after the St. Patrick’s Day Parade at the Santa House in uptown Denison from noon to 2:30pm. This project was made possible through generous sponsorships from businesses and organizations in our community. “We had no idea how much funding we would be able to raise for this project when we started and have been so excited and thankful for the sponsors who were passionate to support this project!” stated Rachel Desy, member of WIBIO.
The tote bags are bright green and include sponsor logos and names. Each person will receive one free bag in exchange for any amount of plastic bags recycled. Additional bags may be purchased for $1 each. All of the plastic bags received will be donated to an organization that uses plastic bags to make rugs for homeless shelters and people in need. “We have been told that it takes over 1,000 plastic bags to make just one rug so we encourage residents to bring as many as they have available!” Desy shared.
“The idea for this project was born when one of our WIBIO members shared her concern at a WIBIO meeting last year for how many plastic bags she found when cleaning up a roadside ditch. She couldn’t believe how many bags were stuck in fence lines and tree branches and it inspired our group to take action on how we could help,” Desy added. Several of our members started doing research and found many unsettling facts about plastic bag usage in our country and community.
According to the Center for Biological Diversity, Americans use nearly 100 billion plastic bags per year. These bags are used for an average of twelve minutes and only one percent of all bags are brought back for recycling. Even when disposed of properly, plastic bags can escape from trash bins and end up littering the landscape by blowing down the street, flapping from trees, and clogging storm drains. Additionally, it takes more than 500 years for a plastic bag to degrade in a landfill. Unfortunately, the bags don’t break down completely but instead photo-degrade, becoming microplastics that absorb toxins and continue to pollute the environment. (Source: biologicaldiversity.org)
“Our group is very passionate about improving these statistics and felt that this project aligned with our goal and purpose as an organization,” Desy said. “We couldn’t be more excited by the amount of sponsorships that we received to fund this initiative and are so humbled that we have such a caring and supportive community! These bags are very nice quality and can be used over and over again and many merchants will even take 5 cents off of your purchase for using a reusable bag each time you shop.”
“WIBIO looks forward to helping Crawford County lead the way to a greener, cleaner and more sustainable community!”
For further information on the WIBIO Go Green & Shop Local initiative contact the CDC Office at 263-5621.
Original source can be found here.
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