With that, let me tell you a little story about a man named Andy. Andy was spending some time at the local dump getting rid of some stuff, and saw a gigantic pile of plastic bags; hundreds, thousands even… It was right there and then that Andy decided to never use another plastic bag. He immediately ran home, bought a sewing machine, and made the first ever ChicoBag (http://www.chicobag.com/). In the next six months and Andy found himself knee deep in production, and saw a fantastic response from the Chico community and consumers worldwide. ChicoBag sold their first products on Earth Day in 2005, and officially launched the campaign to “help humanity kick the non-reusable bag habit”.

Once we were filled in on the roots of ChicoBag, Andy was kind enough to tell us what they’re up to these days. ChicoBag is currently heavily involved in school fundraising, producing bags for corporations and other companies, and has become a huge advocate of sustainability. In fact, they’ve launched a nationwide campaign which promotes the illusive BagMonster and gives people a visual of the waste and overproduction associated with plastic bags. (View this mythical BagMonster at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0CoDsuFE_M ChicoBag also now has ten different designs, and has shipped their products are far as Taiwan, the Virgin Islands, and Guam.

ChicoBag is also a huge advocate of spreading the essence of Chico’s tight-knit community to other areas. It was the community and the mindset that influenced the sustainability aspect of ChicoBag, and they hope to spread the word that communities like Chico are making a difference!

Make sure to grab some bags at http://www.chicobag.com/, and keep checking The Grid for updates on other movement-making companies!