The council teamed up with several groups in the community to sew hundreds of free shopping bags for the public, in support of "Plastic-Free July".
The initiative began with groups giving away bags at the Balclutha New World on Monday.
Council waste minimisation officer Steve Clarke said the bag handout was a success. All 300 of the available bags had been given away by 1.30pm, including 150 "koha bags" made by community members from recycled curtain material.
An additional 100 "Love Food Hate Waste" branded bags and 50 New World bags were given away.
"The uptake was pleasing and folks’ awareness of the issues related to single-use plastic bags was high," Mr Clarke said.
It was a great chance to educate people on an alternative to single-use plastic bags. If the recipients used their cloth bag once a week they would use 15,000 fewer plastic bags over the course of a year.
Mr Clarke estimated about 30% of people who visited the supermarket on Monday had their own bags, which showed there was an awareness in the community already.
"The success of this initiative is down to the folk in the community who gave their time to make the bags."
Groups included the Clutha Change Collective, Owaka Patchwork Group, The CDC sewing ladies and sew-ins at Clutha district libraries. The curtain material was donated by The Dunedin Curtain Bank.
