1.What is your innovation story?
We are about community. Boomerang Bags kicked off in 2013 when Co-founders, Tania Potts and Jordyn de Boer met up with the dream of reducing plastic bags within their community of Burleigh Heads, Australia. Thanks to dozens of amazing supporters and hundreds of dedicated volunteers, Boomerang Bags is now spreading into communities
worldwide!
We encourage you to think small (with big enthusiasm!). Boomerang bags isn’t about replacing all the plastic bags used in your local Safeway or Walmart (we couldn’t possibly make them fast enough!), it’s about banding together, igniting conversations around plastic, sharing knowledge about solutions, and inspiring people to make more conscious choices about how they consume (not just plastic bags, but all single use plastic!).
Distributing the bags is the last step…focus first on building community, raising awareness and making bags over time (there’s no rush, make it fun!).
When it comes to distributing the bags, consider how you can best do this with maximum impact – personally gifting a bag to someone, be it at a market stall, event or local shop, is a great way to start a conversation about the message of reuse. Chances are, the story (and gift) will touch them enough to change the way they think about plastic, which is an enormous win!
2. Do you follow a sustainable development agenda (for people, planet and prosperity) in your company /
business?
✓ Actively engages the local community in positive environmental and social change
✓ Raises awareness about plastic pollution as well as wider sustainability issues, and encourage innovative
solutions
✓ Reduces plastic consumption (and subsequent pollution), leading to cleaner parks, streets,
neighbourhoods and rivers
✓ Fosters sustainable behaviour
✓ Builds community connectedness
✓ Creates a sense of purpose and community ownership
✓ Increases the skills and capacity of volunteers, leading to increased employment opportunities
✓ Bridges the gap between senior citizens and youth
✓ Diverts waste from landfill through up-cycling of second-hand materials
3. If your enterprise could have a global application, what is your vision for transforming the planet?
Boomerang Bags is already Global and we are one of its results in the face of this transformation. We are the YYC branch and excited to make our impact locally. From our Australian pioneers, who have been working to keep plastics out of the oceans, our goal, landlocked as we are, is to keep our rivers clean, our parks green and our arms full of BBYYC bags each time we enter a store. If they aren’t there, there’s a bin of BBYYC bags to pull from. We will continue to engage in our global Boomerang community and support those that want to start up their own groups nearby.
We aspire to educate, to repurpose and change the throw away mentality of a one use nation. We are considered first world and we must act first class in regards to our community and planet. From the materials we repurpose, the volunteers, students, families and local businesses, we will involve, these connections and the connectivity already achieved, the messages and the bags will become the new normal. The vision of a Boomerang Bags Workshop van traveling the country, educating and running local workshops could be transformational.
Learn more about the impact of Boomerang Bags at TECHSTOCK 2017!