Millicent woman makes 10,000 free fabric shopping bags to fight waste

Australia Broadcast Center

28-05-2025

A woman from the South Australian town of Millicent has achieved her goal of making 10,000 fabric shopping bags just in time for a local festival celebrating sustainability.
Jody McKechnie began her mission to make and give away the bags a year ago and, with some help from other volunteers and local schoolchildren, made her 10,000th bag on Sunday ahead of the Re-A-Range Festival that begins on Friday.
"It was just gruelling getting that amount done so quickly," the 62-year-old volunteer said.
"It's been pretty intense — it was elating and it felt like a dream afterward."
The 10,000 Bag Project began when Ms McKechnie was working in an op shop and realised how many plastic bags were still being used.
She suggested the project to the Wattle Range Council, which runs the Re-A-Range Festival, and began making the tote bags using donated unwanted fabric.
She said reusable plastic shopping bags were not ideal because they did not decompose and contributed to microplastics in the environment.
Ms Kechnie has been working from a shop owned by Sukhi Dhaliwal, who also part-owns the neighbouring IGA supermarket.
The space had been empty for three years.
Mr Dhaliwal said he thought Ms McKechnie could get more recognition for her project in a permanent space.
"Me, personally, whenever I think if I can help the community in some way, I will always do that," he said.
"I saw there is a need, I can help somehow and I just came on board and helped."
Ms McKechnie has trained local primary school students in sewing, and they have made some bags for the project.
Millicent North Primary School teacher Kylie Peace said the children learnt to sew, but also learnt about perseverance, sustainability and microplastics.
Ms McKechnie said there was an element of surprise to finishing on time, but she knew the people of Millicent would embrace her project.
"This community is a really giving community," she said.
"There is a lot of people who do a lot of volunteer work and there's a lot of support networks in this community for people who are disadvantaged, so I haven't been that surprised that people have gotten behind the project," she said.
"I've found it really encouraging that people have actually taken it a little bit more seriously and to the next step and started conversing about their own use of plastic and what they can do modify that."
Scraps of fabric that did not make it into bags have been used to fill dog beds made by Ms McKechnie's friend, Mary Pappin.
The bags will form centrepieces for the Millicent Met Gala Wearable Art Fashion Parade on Friday and will be given out on the night.
The event is a competitive fashion parade showcasing wearable art made from recycled materials.