New and seasoned sewers have been busy creating produce bags to give out to the community for free in preparation for the government’s latest ban on hard-to-recycle plastics.

Wānaka Wastebusters and Fabricate hosted a series of Sip ‘n’ Sew events last month to make reusable produce bags from repurposed materials and, over the hill, Wastebusters partnered with Sustainable Queenstown for sewing events with TIKKI Studios.  

More than 500 bags were made over the four sessions and by volunteers at home.

Wastebusters scheduled the sewing events ahead of the government’s ban on plastic produce bags which came into effect on Saturday (July 1). 

Their aim is to support people to make a shift to reusable bags instead of other single-use products, including paper bags, which are resource-heavy to produce.

The sewing events also coincided with the start of Plastic Free July, giving people a chance to prepare ahead of time.

Wastebusters events coordinator Chelsea Holdom said there was a great response by people wanting to be part of the initiative.

“Overall, we had 23 volunteers in Wānaka and 15 in Queenstown who created hundreds of the bags and pre-cut kits for people to sew themselves,” she said.

“Some had never used a sewing machine before so there was a lot of skill sharing and lots of great conversation. We were stoked to make so many bags to give out to people in our community so they can choose to reuse.”

There were 300 bags handed out to customers for free at New World Three Parks on Saturday, and nearly as many were given out at New World Remarkables.

“Our aim is always to support the community and to champion positive behaviour change. Thanks to the support of our many incredible volunteers we were able to do that once again with our Sip n Sew initiative and have collectively changed the meaning behind the saying ‘a stitch in time saves nine’. ”

This initiative is funded by the QLDC Zero Waste District Programme.

PHOTO: Supplied