The average person uses a plastic bag for only about 12 minutes, then that plastic is doomed to roam the earth forever. People think they are going to recycle the bag, but really only about 1 percent of those bags are recycled. Beyond that, plastic is not able to be recycled infinitely, it can only be recycled once. The CAP class students at Centaurus High School decided to create an action project to help mitigate some of this linear use. They took something that was going to be discarded – ratty t-shirts- and upcycled them into reusable grocery bags.

The students considered their target audience carefully. They thought it would be most impactful to reach out to young people; but unfortunately, most young people don’t make the buying decisions for the family. So they designed a two-part project: handing out free cloth bags at the local King Soopers and teaching classes at Angevine Middle School how to make their own reusable grocery bags and why they should use them.

So the Centaurus students settled down to some serious sewing machine time. Every student learned how to use the machines, but a couple of them became master tailors! Others felt more comfortable doing the cutting and tying the bags by hand. Together they made more than 70 bags. Then, when they went to present to the local middle school, they were experts. Forty-five middle schoolers made their own bags to take home armed with the reasons why instead of paper or plastic, they want to choose reusable.

Thank you to King Soopers, Angevine Middle School, and all the people who cleaned out their closets to supply us with materials – including the staff at Cottonwood Institute.

See more photos from our project here!

Written by CAP class instructor Erin Angel

The Community Adventure Program at Centaurus High School is made possible in part by a grant from Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) through the Nature Kids/Jovenes de la Naturaleza program. Click here to learn more!