DAPHNE, Ala. — The Daphne Public Library on Aug. 18 will ‘go green’ — with a shade of turquoise — when it stops providing plastic bags; the cloth alternative for carrying rented materials is now available.

The turquoise bags were purchased by Friends of the Daphne Public Library — 500 for nearly $1,350 — and will be sold for $3 each, Friends president Karen Kyzar, said.

The public may bring their  own bags as an alternative to the new system, she said.

“(The $3 will) cover costs and help us re-order if we need to,” she said. “We thought about giving them out but we have over 1,500 patrons.”

Some bags will be given away during promotions in August, Tonja Young, library director, added in an e-mail.

The 15- by 16- by 3-inch bags will provide an eco-friendly sack for carrying rented library materials, as opposed to the No. 4 plastic bags — a plastic grade that can’t be locally recycled — that the Friends have provided for more than five years, Kyzar said.

“We want to make a step toward being more environmentally correct and not have plastic all over the place,” she said. “Around the country people are realizing that they’ve overdone plastic.”

Young agreed.

“We are trying to get away from the plastic since it can not be recycled,” Young said.  “The cloth bags are much nicer and can be washed and reused indefinitely.”

She said the library wants to take part in caring for the environment.

“It is always good to use recyclable materials and our little city of Daphne has been a leader in the area,” she said, citing organizations such as Daphne Utilities. “The library would like to take part in being a solution to the huge amounts of non-biodegradable waste that is being produced and disposed of daily in America.”

Now is the time to act for this, and future, generations, she said.

“We have seen an increase in ‘going green’ publications, as well as much more public attention focused on the environment on TV, radio, and in the papers,” she said.

“The world can only hold so much trash and we would like to see our children and grandchildren have a good quality of life.”