Marlene Bissel of Munnsville is a Green Bag Lady. She creates and carries eco-friendly shopping bags. Bissel joined the International Green Bag Lady Project and then started her own chapter locally. Now, she is spreading the word to others in the community in hopes of creating an eco-friendlier world.

On Friday, February 14 at 10am, Marlene Bissel will be speaking at the Canastota Public Library about the Green Bag Lady project and its mission. Green Bag Lady is an eco-friendly art project started by artist Theresa VanHatten-Granath in 2008. This international group of volunteers called “Bagettes” make bags out of donated fabric and give them away for a promise of the user to refuse paper and plastic bags while shopping. To date, the group has given away almost 108,000 bags world-wide.

Marlene Bissel will be speaking at the library to anyone who might be interested in joining the Green Bag Lady movement. She will explain the requirements for making the bags as well as talk about the distribution of these lovely hand-created bags. Chapters consist of one or more people who enjoy making bags. It’s a great way to break into a neglected fabric stash. There are no bag making minimums, just however many you can manage.

Green Lady Bags are offered locally for free to those interested in taking the paper-plastic free bag pledge. Starting March 1, 2020, all plastic carryout bags are banned from distribution by stores in New York State. This means that in many stores, a consumer will be charged 5 cents for each paper carryout bag needed at checkout. So, these Green Lady Bags can really make a difference for local residents.

The Canastota Public Library is located at 102 W. Center Street in Canastota. The library is a historic Carnegie building, designed and built in 1902, with funds provided by the philanthropist Andrew Carnegie.The library has been a community gathering place for sharing resources since its inception.

By martha

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