The Magic of Tiny Business by Sharon Rowe

The bags were an instant hit and sold out in four hours. Rowe started importing and selling those string bags in a street booth at the 1990 Earth Day Celebration in New York, where she encouraged people to opt for reusable shopping bags over wasteful paper and plastic. But Rowe had seen shoppers in Europe using stretchable string bags to transport their groceries, and she felt she could start a trend in the US. In addition, their lightweight nature means they’re prone to blowing around recycling facilities, where they can contaminate entire batches of recycling.īack in the ’80s, few people brought their own shopping bags to the store in the US. These flimsy, single-use bags also take a lot of energy to manufacture and transport across the country.They do not break down in landfill sites and are difficult to recycle. Plastic bags are made from petroleum, a non- renewable resource that contributes to global warming. Her desire to curb the waste led her to create her own online store, featuring a line of reusable bags for nearly every purpose: Eco-Bags Products, Inc. Plus, she knew her sightings weren’t rare-a quick look around told her that across the city, plastic bags often wound up in gutters, trees, the Hudson River, or in the garbage. Rowe was struck by the waste, since the bags are not sustainable nor reusable. Thirty years ago, in 1989, Sharon Rowe was walking through Washington Heights in Manhattan, where she saw plastic bags everywhere, stuck in nearby trees or tumbling on the ground. Contact Ego-Bags Products: Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter

The Magic of Tiny Business by Sharon Rowe