Who are the Bag Ladies of Seattle?

Barbara Carey:
I have wanted to save the world since I served in the Peace Corps in the sixties. Life, of course, got in the way, and I spent years earning money and raising a family, as most of us do. Upon retiring, instead of starting to live "the good life," I was diagnosed with breast cancer. This ordeal helped me develop a deeper understanding of my self, my life, and my mortality. I found that once again I had a need to do something to help the world become a better place while I am still able. Through my extensive travels I have come to love and respect our natural world and the need for all of us to be good stewards of our planet, and to ensure its beauty, diversity, and safety for future generations. A trip to Australia raised my awareness of the "plastic bag plague" and the critical need for a realistic solution. This has led me to the forming of the Bag Ladies of Seattle providing an acceptable and exciting alternative of beautiful, convenient reusable bags. I feel now that I am truly helping to save the world - one bag at a time.

Sara Gillam:
I am Sara Gillam -- mother of four beautiful children, wife, business woman, and inhabitant of this beautiful planet. I started Generation-e (aka BagLadiesofSeattle.com) with my mother and two best friends, whom I have known since we were in baby group together, and therefore am in the enviable (???) position of working with both my mother and my two best friends. How many people can say that? However, so far so good – we are having a wonderful time, are doing well as a company, and, most importantly, are making a difference in this world we all live in.

My children are my inspiration, from my politically active, highly interesting and interested 17 year old twin sons, to my inquisitive nine year old boy, and my fascinating seven year old daughter. They have made me see the world through different eyes – eyes that demand change in the world around them in order to secure this beautiful and fragile planet. To tell them that it’s just too inconvenient to reuse a bag instead of filling a landfill just isn’t an option. This company is inspired by them – with a goal to make it easy for all of us to make the right decisions on a daily basis.

It’s asking too much of any of us to save the world, and thinking that way is daunting and frightening. But, if we all make decisions every day to do the little things to tread more softly on this earth, then together we already are saving the world.

Sinclair Sawhaney:
A former journalist and middle school teacher, Sinclair Sawhney is the amused, yet often harried and dismayed mother of two children, seven and eight (yikes, how'd that happen?). The family adventures often require ecoSilk bags and Sinclair's husband is convinced that helping her friends found The Bag Ladies of Seattle is just another shoppertunity in her too active and chaotic imagaination. It is true she carries them everywhere and has started stalking shoppers and querying them about their reusable bag choices, but Sinclair's thrilled to have found an outlet for her over-active curiosity. She's always thinking of a new use for ecoSilk bags and was recently considering turning one into a bathing suit for her daughter when a playdate turned into a sprinkler moment, but Beth and Sara discouraged any cutting on their sample product. Good thing! That bag came in handy when the playdate ended and they made an unexpected stop at Whole Foods.

Beth Douglass:
My name is Beth otherwise known as Mommy to my two boys, ages 8 and 6, wife to my wonderful husband and volunteer to the greater community. I believe in the power of volunteering and that you get out of the world what you put in. I became of Bag Lady of Seattle to make the world a better place for my children and the community. By doing things a little more green every day, I believe that the world can be changed one land fill at a time. I love to watch the highly entertaining energy between my three very smart, talented friends Sara, Sinclair and Barb.

Our History

The Bag Ladies of Seattle began with a mother and adult daughter team talking about local environment concerns while picking uptrash after coaching a soccer game. They were using a plastic grocery bag, which was coming apart and they noticed that the trash can was already jammed full of plastic bags.

"It was really a waste of resources," recalls Barb Carey, "and I'd just come back from Australia where everyone it seemed had been using reusable bags. When I look at my grandson playing soccer and my granddaughter building fairy forts in the woods behind her house, I just feel like I should be a part of the solution, like I should do something."

'Something' morphed into The Bag Ladies of Seattle several weeks later when Sara Gillam, still thinking about her mom's and her own environmental concerns, took her family to their annual Cannon Beach vacation with two friends and their families. Usually the three, who met in a mom's group eight years ago, vie to tell the funniest parenting stories. (Sara always wins.) This time after the three friends had walked back from town along the beach carrying the groceries for a spagetti dinner, they unloaded their groceries and were transfixed and then disgusted by the mortifyingly big pile of plastic grocery bags. There were so many. What should they do with the dozen plus bags? Were they recyclable? All three tried to use cloth shopping bags when they were home and remembered, but no one had thought to bring a reusable grocery tote on vacation.

And as the pacific waves rolled in, and their children flew kits in the evening breeze, Sara mentioned her mother's trip to Australia and her excitement about EcoSilk Bags.

"ecoSilk Bags are pretty. I know it sounds shallow, but they are. I even use the shopping bags as a purse sometimes. They are so bright that they make me feel in a better mood, especially in the fall when it's so rainy here. And I love doing something for the environment. My daughter is five, and I want to teach her good habits about respecting the earth."
~ Chandra in Newcastle, WA