The pedestrians were the victims of "guerrilla bagging", which involved Dunedin secondary school pupils approaching people on the street to swap their plastic bags for creatively designed reusable bags.
Otago Girls High School pupil Ruby Parker said the bags were free and it was hoped they would send a clear message to Dunedin residents - "plastic bags aren't free; they cost us by harming our environment, using up valuable resources, and adding hidden costs to our shopping bills".
[comment caption=Would you hand over your plastic bags?]More than 30 pupils from eight Dunedin secondary schools came together to raise awareness of the environmental impact of plastic bags and promote alternatives.
They also rolled out red carpet - a la the Oscar awards - to celebrate people who were using reusable bags.
This included a photo shoot and street theatre.
The pupils are part of the ReGeneration Enviroschools workshop, which is run regionally throughout New Zealand.
The two-day Dunedin workshop began on Wednesday and brought together passionate teens and their environmental ideas.
This year, they decided to focus their efforts on plastic bags because the cost on the environment was so great, and it was an issue everyone could participate in positively, Ruby said.
About 100,000 sea creatures were killed each year by plastic bags alone.
"They also contribute to $25 million a year in hidden costs to our grocery bills, yet when people receive plastic bags free of charge they treat them as though they are worth nothing.
"Our precious oil resources are used to create plastic bags, and in fact the total embodied energy in New Zealand's annual bag consumption would be enough to drive from Dunedin to Christchurch return 160,000 times," she said.
The street activities were the culmination of the workshop.
