In an age when showing up at the grocery store without a reusable bag is akin to showing up at a dinner party without your pants, the type of bag you carry can say a lot about you.
One bag -- it's been so popular the first two runs are almost sold out -- is allowing people to make a statement about shopping locally, shopping green, and community pride with an easy swing of two straps over the shoulder.
The highly coveted Commercial Drive banner bag is made with the bright, bold nylon of retired street banners that once decorated the shopping and dining strip in East Vancouver.
"They tend to sell out within four or five days of us receiving them," said Jen Wittich, manager of Dream Designs, one of 15 retailers selling the bags.
"People tend to really appreciate the story. They like the fact it's keeping waste out of landfills. And I find people in the Commercial Drive area tend to shop very locally. They love to shop within their own neighbourhood."
A local designer who sits on the Commercial Drive Business Improvement Association came up with the idea of turning the banners into bags, and a limited number of umbrellas, out of a frustration that the banners had nowhere to go but the landfill.
To further sweeten the concept, it was decided that all profits from the sale of the items would go to creating new green spaces in the Commercial Drive area.
It proved to be a popular idea.
The story of the banner bag was picked up by dozens of websites and translated into at least six languages. Ian McSorely, the banner designer who came up with the concept, said the City of Vancouver is planning to make bags from its Olympic banners, and there have been inquiries about the program from municipalities all over North America.
"It's had a great response," he said. To show buyers the extent of the environmental impact of the bag, McSorely also conducted an "eco-audit" on the bag. The audit showed that by using recycled fabric to make the bags, 5.3 tons of carbon dioxide emissions were kept from the skies, 192 kilograms of nylon were kept from the landfill, and enough energy was saved to provide electricity to an average Vancouver home for more than 15 months.
Nearly 500 bags were made and, so far, the profits from the project have earned more than $4,000, said Michelle Barile, executive director of the business improvement association. (Twenty-five umbrellas were made and are being sold exclusively through the association.)
Only a handful of bags are left among five of the 15 retailers who have been selling them. But a new line of small makeup bags -- made with the scraps left over from the banner bags -- will be hitting stores soon, Barile said. The makeup bags have been made by members of the SEED Employment Program at the Kettle Friendship Centre.
North Vancouver has also jumped on the bandwagon, hiring Dream Designs to manufacture bags from its banners, which Wittich said the store will be selling soon.
Barile says she has no problem with other municipalities and neighbourhoods imitating the concept.
"If what we started here is now going to cause other banners to be recycled, that would be awesome."
Source: The Vancouver Sun
