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Windbag Company of Nova Scotia Click here to view your quick list
 

Lunenburg, Nova Scotia

Self-proclaimed dumpster diva Pauline Dickison is wowing customers with her waste-turned-wonderful bags. By using materials that would have otherwise piled into a landfill...

t: view phone (902) 634 9196 Loft

e: riverrat@eastlink.ca

pauline dickison windbag company

Windbag Company of Nova Scotia
from blew to green.....

The Windbag Company of Nova Scotia creates unique and durable bags, totes and other specialty products that are locally made and easy on the environment - and each one has a story to tell.

Pauline and her family live overlooking Mahone Bay on Nova Scotia’s south shore . She recalls, “It started with a giant tent that blew away in a big storm- Someone suggested turning the ruined tent into bags for Christmas gifts.” A friend who owns a garden centre loved the big round totes and asked if she could purchase some for her staff as well as some to sell to her customers. Those first bags had a tag attached that read :

This article was hand cut and crafted from the re-claimed fabric of a giant tent, rescued from the trees in a Nor’easter on Mahone Bay, NS

Inspired by her dedication to divert (so-called) garbage from landfills - often in the form of dumpster diving - and her love of sturdy, reusable bags, Pauline began to look for other tough fabrics. Being a sailor the answer was obvious – used sails. The request went out to the sailing community and in no time old sails were being sent to the entrepreneur from recomissioning

Sailors’ attachment to their wind-catching fabrics can last long after its lifespan at sea so when a sail is donated to the cause, the owner receives a bag made from their own sail. A bag is a more practical way to keep the sail with them. But the story of the boat lives on. Each bag features a tag that tells the story of the boat from which the sail came.

Pauline says, “Besides being green, and producing locally hand - crafted articles, we are also connecting with the marine heritage here in Canada and beyond. Many of our sails have come from.boats built at Niagara on the Lake or Oakville, ON, the US, Europe and, of course, Nova Scotia. A recent run of bags were constructed from the sails of Ebb Tide launched in Auckland in 1959) sent to Pauline from New Zealnd, where she( the boat) still happily sails and races.

In the Spring of 2008 Pauline joined sailmaker Jill Smith, who works in a circa 1840's sail loft on Bluenose Drive that overlooks the Lunenburg Harbour. “ Being in a real sailloft and working side by side with someone who makes and repairs sails is fabulous.

Everyone in the sail loft is connecting to Lunenburg’s sailing past and present. In fact, one employee, Michelle, had worked in local sail lofts, where sails are created and repaired, for over 20 years before joining the team. She knows the fabric, and once in a while, she recognizes her own repairs on old sails that come in for re-commissioning. Every sewer in a sail loft has their own distinctive patchwork.

The bags are trimmed with sunbrella or vinyl off-cuts, as well as reclaimed painted canvasses from fine art students. Straps are often constructed with reclaimed seatbelts.

” We gather lining material from individuals and companies It’s funny, now we get invited into their dumpsters. But for companies that work with the Windbag Company, it’s a win-win. Manufacturing companies often have off-cuts or ends of fabric that they must pay for by the pound to have carted off to our landfills. At ever chance, Pauline promotes these companies and thanks them for their efforts to diminish our collective carbon footprint. She figures the company diverted at least 15,000 pounds of material from our landfills just this year alone..

windbag banner


In addition to sails, the Windbag Bag Company also turns other waste materials into functional treasures. They include used agri-feed and seed bags, as well as fair trade coffee sacks from all over the world. When an organic farmer approached Pauline with a concern he had about feedbags; he buys 50 bags of feed each week from a producer on Ontario, empties ‘new’ bags and then has to send them to the landfill because the fabric cannot be recycled in NS. Pauline and her team turned them into 400 participant bags for the Union of Nova Scotia Municipalities’ Conference Moving Towards a Sustainable Future. as well as an agricultural conference this spring on buying local. The Windbag Company will be producing the conference bags for the upcoming NS Dept of Environment event called The Power of Green, and the team is producing bags for the Halifax Farmers Market to promote the planned Seaport Market. For Pauline, the feedbag is a pet project and more a labour of love than anything. “It’s great for awareness of environmental issues. While we don’t encourage the production or purchase of new synthetics, we can use what does exist. Our goal is to divert these tough materials from the landfill and give them another life.

Even the bag linings are recycled; it could be a boat cover, curtains, or Pauline’s couch cover that got recycled when more fabric was needed in a hurry. Heck, she recently chopped up the soft top from a 1970's MGB sportscar, dropped off to her by a local patron.

Pauline’s windbags are getting a lot of exposure and positive feedback and have been featured at events such as the Lunenburg Craft Festival and the Mahone Bay Classic Boat Festival.
So far, Wind Bags are available at several shops in Nova Scotia and Ontario as well as the Halifax Farmer’s Market every Saturday. And the product line continues to grow as Pauline integrates new materials, and even original artwork, into their bags. As they continue to develop new partnerships and keep up with consumer demands, Pauline is clear, “we will always find time to go dumpster diving.”
Straightening, cleaning and sewing the sails is labour intensive, but the Company’s employees, love their work. Pauline aims to be an employer of choice and her employees like coming to work. I try to be flexible with their needs and try to provide a good environment for them.” Since its inception just over a year ago, business has been booming. To what does Pauline attribute the company’s success? “ Enthusiasm” says Pauline, “Being wealthy is not the point. I want to carve out a living for myself and a small group of people in coastal rural Nova Scotia by producing something useful and unique that hopefully has a positive impact.”

For more information about theWindbag Company of NS, contact:

Pauline Dickison (902) 634-9196 Loft
(902) 553-0861 cell


Windbag Company of Nova Scotia
from blew to green.....
Visit us at the Halifax Farmers (known as the oldest farmers market in North America) each Saturday . We are located on the lower level. http://www.halifaxfarmersmarket.com
....Or visit one of the following fine shops that carry our one-of-a-kind bags:
P’Lovers - the Environmental Store, Main Street Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia http://www.plovers.net
P’Lovers - the Environmental Store, Park Lane Mall, Halifax, Nova Scotia
P’Lovers - the Environmental Store - Bayfied, ON
P’Lovers - the Environmental Store, Stratford, ON
The Binnacle, Halifax, Nova Scotia, http://www.binnacle.com
Chester Organics, Chester, NS

Partners in the Business Community who share our goal of diminishing our environmental impact, who have provided discarded materials
Atlantic Fabrics, Dartmouth, NS
Java Blend, Free Trade Coffee Roasters, Halifax, NS
Helly Hansen, Dartmouth, NS
North Sails, Lunenburg, NS
Hiltz Service Station, Martins River, NS
Corkums Towing and Recycling, Lunenburg, NS
Palmer Upholstery, Lunenburg Co., NS
Glyda’s Fruit and Vegetables, Western Shore, NS
Exit Realty, Bridgewater, NS
Bridgewater Farmers Co-op, Bridgewater, NS
Angelhoeve Organic Farm, Annapolis Valley, NS
Pasture Hill Farm, Annapolis Valley, NS
The House Doctor, Charlottetown, PE
Charlottetown Yacht Club, Charlottetown, PE
Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron, Halifax, NS
Maritime Canvas Converters, Halifax, NS
DR Hickey Canvas, Halifax, NS
Weavexx Manufacturing, Coldbrook, NS
Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University
Michelle Stevens Sail Loft , Second Peninsula, NS
Victory Sails, Dartmouth, NS

plus... many individual sailors who have brought in old sails, and farmers and bird lovers who pass on feed and seed bags, and people who sew.....

Thanks to one and all!

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