This week the San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved the Plastic Bag Reduction Ordinance, which bans the use of plastic shopping bags by large supermarkets. The ordinance requires these grocery stores to use either compostable bags, made from corn starch or other vegetable-based materials and containing no petroleum products, or recyclable paper bags containing a minimum of 40 percent post-consumer recycled content.

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The San Francisco Department of the Environment estimates that currently about 180 million plastic shopping bags are distributed in San Francisco each year. About 774,000 gallons of oil are used to produce this number of shopping bags.

It’s been pointed out that the Supervisor who sponsored this legislation is a Green:

Supervisor [Ross] Mirkarimi cofounded the California chapter of the Green Party over 14 years ago . . . .

Personally, I’d like to see people switch to greener shopping bags voluntarily, rather than through force. (Retailers would, too.) Maybe this will make greener bags more widely available to retailers elsewhere. Who knows.

Big Y execs told us they’d keep an eye on the project, and might consider selling canvas bags to their customers in the future.

We put hundreds of dollars into the project, and though we asked for donations, we mostly spent our own money. What’s more, we never saw anyone using the bags after that first day. So the project seemed to be a bust.

Two weeks ago, all Big Y locations began selling $3 canvas bags at the registers.

I have no idea how much influence our project had on this decision. But I want to believe that it all paid off.

You can do something similar at home, with shopping bags or the plastic bags they put your newspaper in on rainy days. All you have to do is cut the bags into ribbons, twist the ribbons into a sort of yarn, and then knit or crochet the yarn into whatever you like. This is an inexpensive way to make holiday gifts for the environmentalists on your list.

The best technique I’ve seen was taught to me by Ines Beron. She has put her own instructions on-line; what follows is my explanation of her technique, with links to her photos and instructions.

1. Trim the bottom seam from the bag. (Photo)

   

2. Unfold as much of the bag as possible and flatten it out. (Photo)
   

3. Fold the bag not quite in half widthwise (with the fold perpendicular to the seam you cut off). Let one of the edges stick out about 1 inch. Fold the part you already folded in half, repeating until the folded part is also about 1 inch wide. (Photo)
   
   

4. Cut off the handles.
   

5. About every inch, cut the folded part of the bag widthwise. Try not to cut into the unfolded part of the bag. (Photo, Photo)
   

6. Grab the unfolded part of the bag, and shake gently. The folded part will unroll into a fringe. (Photo)
   

7. Open up the unfolded part of the bag and spread flat. (Photo)
   

8. Make a cut from the center (widthwise) of the unfolded part to the nearest cut, diagonally. (Photo)
   

9. Keep cutting across the unfolded part, diagonally, connecting the different cuts. (Photo)
   

10. The last cut will be similar to the first, finishing in the center, widthwise, of the unfolded part.
11. Now you have turned the plastic bag into a single long, thin, plastic ribbon. Roll it into a ball. (Photo)

Knit or crochet using this piece of “plastic yarn.” When this piece starts to run out, tie another piece to the end and trim the knot.

Ines has made lots of great stuff out of plastic bags, including a little backpack and large handbag (pictured). I wish I had a photo of the purse she made with a little flower added, or the lilies she’s crocheted.

There are many nice photos of crocheted plastic bags online, including this one.

(If you’re looking to avoid plastic bags in the first place, see our instructions on how to sew a canvas bag. On a related note, you can carve your own crochet hook (via Boing Boing).)

Materials: We used unbleached cotton canvas, which you can buy or order at your local fabric store. Organic cotton would be even cooler. We used oil-based ink, because we wanted to make bags that people could machine-wash. Non-toxic ink would be even cooler.

Instructions:

1. Cutting the cloth: The cloth comes folded in half. Cut a 23″ wide piece of the folded cloth. Cut a 4″x5.5″ rectangle out of each of the two corners of the cloth that are along the fold. The 5.5″ side of the rectangle is parallel to the fold.

   Now, unfold the cloth.

   

   

   

   

2. Printing your design: We used a linoleum block.

   

   

   

3. After the printed image has dried, fold the cloth “inside out,” so that the image is not visible.

   

4. Sew the edges together that will be the sides of the bag. Don’t sew the part where you cut out the little rectangles. I used a flat-felled seam (howto sew it) with a 1/2″ seam allowance.

   

   

5. Turn the bag right-side out. There will be three holes: one at the top, and two in what should be the bottom. Pin the cloth of each bottom hole together and sew. I used a 1/4″ seam allowance. (In the first picture I’ve added some small pleats to make the two sides line up properly.)

   

   

6. Turn the bag inside out. Push out the bottom as much as you can. Sew along what were the holes, again. I used a 3/8″ seam allowance. The raw edge will be hidden inside this seam.

   

7. The top edge of the bag should be the finished edge of the cloth, so you don’t have to hem it. But I did. Fold the top over 1″, pin, and sew to make a simple hem.

   

8. From your bolt of folded-over cloth, cut a 4″ width. Cut this in half by length to make two pieces, each 4″x?”.
9. Fold each of these in half by width. Press the crease with your fingers. You could pin it, but you don’t have to. Sew the two edges together to make a tube. I used a 1/4″ seam allowance.

   

10. Turn each tube inside-out. This may take a minute. Press flat with your fingers. Sew along the first seam. I used a 1/4″ seam allowance. This will keep the tube flat.

    

11. The two tubes are the two handles of the bag. I folded one end of the tube about 1″, then sewed it inside the bag, stitching a big square with an X inside. Then I sewed on the other side of the handle. If you don’t like where you sewed on the handle, you can remove the stitches and try again.

Now you have a canvas bag.

Mike Baxter once wrote:

Liberals say: “Hey! The homeless aren’t being fed. Let’s march on City Hall.” Radicals say, “The homeless aren’t being fed. Let’s feed them.”

Liberals say: There are too many plastic bags, so let’s tax them. Radicals say: There are too many plastic bags, so let’s make a bunch of cloth bags and give them away.

Our friends helped us make dozens of bags, and we held a bag giveaway at our local supermarket. We had to contact people up the store’s corporate ladder to get permission, but they were all enthusiastic about the idea. The local paper ran a short article annoucing the giveaway, and people showed up that morning brandishing the article.

Several people who took a bag told us: “Everyone in Europe uses cloth bags.” I look forward to the day that people can say the same thing about Worcester.

Customer Robert F. Kelly and Big Y employee Julianne Thomas display a bag.

Mary Wernholme.

See also: How to Knit a Plastic Bag

If you found part of this “howto” confusing, please post a comment, and I’ll clarify the step.

The worst part is, nobody even needs them.

A few sturdy cloth bags can do the job as well as plastic (or paper) bags, and can be used over and over for years.

Making the transition requires two steps:

Step 1: Get the cloth bags. The Catholic Worker is making this step easy for dozens of Worcester shoppers. We’ll be giving out homemade canvas bags Nov. 9 to shoppers at the Big Y supermarket on Mayfield Street. These were made possible by generous donations and lots of sewing work.

(See also our instructions on sewing canvas shopping bags.)

Step 2: Change your shopping habits. This one isn’t too hard, either.

My parents live in a 2-story house, with the kitchen upstairs. My father made the transition from plastic bags by either using a couple of cloth bags for small shopping trips, or by putting groceries straight from his shopping cart into his car. He’s set up a sort of pantry downstairs by the garage, so he can move the groceries from the car to the pantry easily. He moves the groceries upstairs as needed.

At my own house, we always used some cloth bags, but always used plastic bags, too. Then we made a chart listing how many plastic bags we were using, how many paper bags, and how many times we used cloth bags.

Using plastic bags became a cause for shame. If you used a plastic bag, someone would look at the chart and say, “Hey, who used a plastic bag today?” It became competitive, and our plastic bag use quickly dropped to zero.

Here’s an article previewing the project in the Catholic Free Press: Canvas shopping bags to replace plastic.

Update: See our articles on making your own shopping bag out of canvas or old plastic bags.

Pictured: James Hannaford-Ricardi outside Big Y, rejoicing at his new canvas bag while his mother, Abby, looks on.