Irving’s Green Seam Project, which promotes landfill diversion by converting fabric destined for the landfill into reusable shopping bags, has been recognized with the Rick Fuszek Memorial Award for Outstanding Sustainable Materials Management. Senior Community Outreach Coordinator Fran Witte accepted the award on behalf of the city at the State of Texas Alliance for Recycling’s (STAR) Annual Texas Recycling and Sustainable Summit held in Houston last month.
Since the project’s launch in Sept. 2009, Irving has distributed approximately 7,000 Green Seam Project bags, saving the planet and the landfill more than 350,000 plastic shopping bags. Materials used to make the reusable bags range from scrap fabric to gently used T-shirts. Local seamstresses make the bags, which are distributed at no cost to the public during city events.
“Approximately 1 million plastic bags are used every minute and can take up to 1,000 years to degrade,” Witte said. “Our goal is to divert materials from the landfill, put them to good use and educate the Irving community about the benefits of reusing cloth bags when shopping.”
To learn more about Irving’s Green Seam Project, contact Witte at fwitte@cityofirving.org or 972-721-2355. For more about Irving’s Think Green, Be Green program, visit cityofirving.org/begreen.
