Surfrider Foundation Surf Coast Branch volunteers are supporting local community group Plastic Bag Free Torquay to tackle the issue of plastic pollution in Torquay through their assistance with the implementation of a bag share initiative called Boomerang Bags. The initiative involves the installation of bag-share, or Boomerang Bag Boxes throughout a target business district. Each box is stocked with re-useable Boomerang Bags for customers to borrow if they have forgotten their own and return on subsequent visits.
The availability of free, reusable bags reduces the need for single-use plastic bags, and the encouragement to ‘Borrow and Bring Back’ works to foster the sustainable mentality of re-use, thereby reducing plastic bag consumption in the long term. Each Boomerang Bag is hand-made by volunteers from the local community using donated second-hand materials, keeping the initiative local and sustainable. For more information on how the Boomerang Bags initiative works or how to get Boomerang Bags started in your local community, click here.