By Virginia Drye
Eagle Times Staff
CORNISH, NH — Cindy Heath was tired of seeing fresh fruits and vegetables put into individual plastic bags in the produce department, so she set out to change it. She started asking questions and contacted her local co-op for alternatives.
Little did she know that her own hand-sewn, mesh produce bags that were part of a larger initiative would go on to make such a big difference—locally, nationally and globally.
“I found some organic cotton fabric and a design on YouTube that I modified, and I made 25 of them,” said Heath, explaining just how the idea came to fruition while she was working on gifts for friends and members of the New Hampshire Network’s Plastics Working Group. “The night before the meeting where I was going to be distributing them, I had this brainstorm, ‘Oh my gosh, this is the answer to the co-op question.’”
The group members are part of a larger initiative, 10 Towns, 10 Actions. The campaign inspires leaders and community members to complete 10 actions to reduce plastic waste and pollution in their town. A total of 43 municipalities from New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine, including Claremont, Cornish and New London, are engaged in the program.
Thirty different ideas were presented to people to choose from.
“Things like having conversations with your co-op about reducing single-use plastic bags, getting involved with your students at school to use reusables in the cafeteria; there’s a whole list on the 10 towns website,” she said.
Heath simply wanted to share a token of her appreciation for how much change the initiative has had, and because of this, the Mesh Bag Mamas were born.
And as a result, they’ve solved the single-use bag problem in your local produce department.
Because their sustainable bag design features a loop, it can hang on the exact same display as the existing plastic bag displays.
“I caught the idea of offering to make 1,000 organic mesh bags for the co-op to display alongside plastic so that customers would have the choice of a reusable option and not just a single-use option,” Heath continued.
The project is being sponsored by Sustainable Lebanon, and an educational piece that will go in the bag is sponsored by Community Action Works. The Mesh Bag Mamas are waiting for supplies to make those bags, but once they do, the group will launch the kits so that anybody who wants to assist can do so.
To hit their goal, the group is currently looking for more volunteers to help create bags in batches of 10, 20, 50 or 100 to release in October.
“Anybody can be a Mesh Bag Mama,” Heath said.
Contact Cindy Heath at cindyheath.com or visit 10towns.org for more information.
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