You're at the farmer's market supporting community agriculture, you've picked out a bunch of delicious looking heirloom tomatoes and oh shit! you've forgotten to bring a bag. Options: Stuff them in your purse and have marinara by the time you get home, take a very planet-unfriendly plastic bag or visit Glenn Robinson's Bags for the People booth.
Noticing that the "oh shit" moment was all too common amongst his farmer's market customers, Robinson started making cloth bags from recycled t-shirts to give out to people at his stand. "We were giving out plastic bags left and right and it just seemed like a problem to me and I was part of the problem, I was actually handing them out," says Robinson. The idea took off and he started the organization "Bags For The People," which holds sewing workshops for the public and in schools. "Giving people the bag, it's almost like giving people a gift and they get really excited," says Robinson. "They are like, 'Oh my god, thank you.'"
The sewing machines, the solar panels that run the machines, and the fabric are all donated. The rest comes straight from Robinson's pocket. "We want to get a step van, hook it up with solar panels, have it run off vegetable grease, travel around with this mobile sewing unit and just go to schools across the nation," he says.(source: Planet Green)
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