ChicoBag Micro Compact Reusable Grocery Bag with Attached Pouch and Carabiner Clip, Skydiver Blue

In early 2004, I took a trip to the local landfill after spending the day landscaping my backyard. I was horrified by how many single-use bags filled the scene. Plastic bags blanketed the landscape in a thin mix of white and beige plastic.

On my way home, I continued to notice plastic bags everywhere; caught in trees and on fence posts, half drowned in gutter puddles and blowing in the streets like urban tumbleweeds. I vowed to stop using single-use bags for good. Inspired, I dropped a few bucks on a secondhand sewing machine and began sewing what would ultimately become the first ChicoBag brand reusable bag.