Today (July 3, 2007)
sees the launch of the Lewes Community Bag. It’s made of Fairtrade certified
cotton and is being launched by the textiles group of Transition Town Lewes,
based at Gossypium on Lewes High
St.

The bags feature ‘Love
Lewes, Shop Local’ on one side and the logos of 20 local independent shops on
the other. The graphic, of Lewes
High St, was designed by local artist Julian Bell.
Lewes Community Bags are being sold at cost, as a community service, by
Gossypium to the local traders who will sell them at an affordable £3 a bag.
The initiative was set up to help people move away from disposable bags and to
promote the local economy. Gossypium has pre-sold this limited edition of 1000
Lewes Community Bags, and we’ve already got people interested in being involved
in the second bag. Gossypium is one of Britain’s leading independent
ethical clothing brands and has led many of the High Street chains including
Marks and Spencer into adoption of Fairtrade cotton.

The bag continued to sell out and went through two more editions.
Meanwhile England
was going off plastic shopping bags and the cotton bag generally became the
norm in Lewes.