Don’t Throw Away Old Clothes

“What else could I do with these old and partly torn clothes except to throw them into the dust bin?” you ask. Don’t. Someone in my city has thought of a method of recycling them. Make ‘carry bags’ out of them. All it needs is a bit of tailoring and there you are, they are your shopping companion.

So impressed was a lady with the colour combination and get up of the bag my wife was carrying, she happened to ask wifey, “My, it’s beautiful. Where is it available? Are they very costly?”

Wifey chuckled quietly. She was very modest too in her reply and told the well wisher how to make one herself. “Sure, I never thought I could put to use my old sarees, skirts etc. Thank you for the idea?” She didn’t want to know the art of conversion. She was a very enterprising lady. All she wanted was the idea and she could modify that into a product. .Great.

‘Necessity is the mother of invention” goes a saying. That’s how cloth bags came into existence. For some years, ladies have been using plastic bags for carrying materials such as vegetables, ready made clothes or anything you buy from the market. Now, a ban is about to come on plastics. These plastic bags were provided by the shop keepers free of charge after you had purchased something from him. Henceforth, he would regret and advise you to bring your own carrying equipment or take the presently purchased merchandise in your lap or hands.

One could also make a business out of this idea, you know? Many ladies don’t own a sewing machine and some who do, don’t know how to use the machine; at least not for making cloth-bags. It does need some kind of imagination to convert an old saree into a container sort of thing. Such ladies wouldn’t mind paying for them. So, here is an idea for starting a home business. Don’t put a high price for it. Perhaps Rs 5 or so would be OK if it is somewhat strong and colourful.

I remember the good old days when I was a boy. My mother invariably carried a couple of jute bags when she went for shopping. In course of time, taking pity on the poor shoppers, the shop-men provided them with paper bags. These paper bags were made out of old newspapers. Making paper bags became a cottage industry; all sizes were required. Even today, many medical shops give you the medicines in paper bags. Paper bags were and continue to be very environment-friendly. Then came Plastic and all kinds of home needs were made out of them right from broom to buckets displacing paper bags. Plastic bags were very light but strong. People went in for them wholesale. Boy, were they happy at the plastic bags ! They became order of the day. One could walk into a shop with just a purse and you came out with loads of plastic bags. What did one do with them after reaching home? Naturally, they became waste material and were thrown into the dust bins or just on the road side causing problem for the sanitary staffs.

Someone toyed with the idea of recycling the plastic bags. Even now they are doing so. But the Govt, in the interest of hygiene and clean atmosphere have decided to prohibit its use. While the business community is on the job of replacing plastic possibly by the good old paper bags, some ladies have come out with the novel idea of cloth bags.

Thank you ladies. You would need raw material for making cloth bags such as old sarees or towels or dhotis etc, wouldn’t you? Some urchins can be mobilized for this purpose of going from home to home collecting the old clothes. After some days, the home makers would become wise and would charge a small fee for each used saree. And this would become a business too. Even used clothes would bring you some money.

Recession need not worry us at all. Tailors all the world would never be out of job ever, recession or inflation. The modern men and women need clothing and would have to hunt for a tailor. Perhaps more tailors would be needed to make cloth bags in addition to the human attires. Presto !.