THE historic Tilba villages are following global trends and going plastic bag free thanks to an initiative of the Tilba Chamber of Commerce.
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Businesses are being asked to ditch disposable plastic bags and instead encourage customers to use a new stylish, black reusable shopping bag.
The bag features an outline of the main street shops and the chamber web address.
“They are a great advertisement for Tilba and we hope people take this classy little bag to heart and start reusing them,” chamber president Peter Lonergan said.
Many businesses including the ABC Cheese Factory are already using either paper bags or other Tilba branded reusable bags.
The chamber of commerce launched the new black bag initiative at a high-tea party at Eumun-Tea on Bate Street on Thursday afternoon.
The new black bag initiative was made possible by support from the South East Regional Organisation of Councils, River Cottage Australia and Eurobodalla Shire Council.
Mayor Lindsay Brown and council’s sustainability education officer Gillian Kearney were both at Wednesday’s launch.
Gillian said Tilba was part of the global movement to rid the world of plastic bags, the number of which used each year could circle the equator 37 times.
“We see the end result down at the beach,” she said.
“So from all of us well done. This is a brave move and it’s not going to be easy but you’ve done it really stylishly with this bag.”
As part of the initiative, students at Central Tilba Public School were asked to draw artwork discouraging the use of disposable plastic bags.
The winner was Year 4 student Angela Garrad with her drawing stating “Plastic kills when it gets in their gills!”