If he had not been made redundant, David Gould might have happily continued to climb the corporate ladder in the publishing industry. Now he has made it his life's work to help prevent plastic bags from ruining the planet.

His jute bag business Canby is helping the town of Thame to become plastic-bag free, and Oxford is next in his sights.

He said: "I was supposedly working in a creative industry before, but this is far more creative."

After producing illustrated books for Reader's Digest and Virgin Books, at the height of the dotcom boom he found himself working for AOL as a web producer on a venture which then folded, resulting in a redundancy pay-off.

"It was one of those classic situations where you have time and money. I had started working in 1985, straight from Oxford University, so I had been working for 16 years.

"I was coming up to 40 - it was a proper midlife crisis. I went travelling in India and found that everyone used jute bags for carrying goods. I really liked the bags and I brought a few back with me.

"I had some scarves that I tried to sell in fashion boutiques and I took them around in one of my jute bags. The fashion buyers said Those scarves are terrible but I really like that bag. Have you got any more like that?' But I only had a few."

The bags were elaborately decorated in Bollywood style, but with western logos. He sold a few hundred, then went back to India to find the manufacturers, carrying a photo of the bag which the London shops had liked.

Bollywood was particularly fashionable in spring 2002 and boutiques loved the bags.

Exporting "I realised that here was a product that would sell in Britain, in a different format. When I asked if they were exporting to Britain, they all said: No, but we are selling them to Germany, Switzerland and Ireland'."

He has followed the zeitgeist and moved from the fashion industry to delicatessens and organic food shops, then to farm shops and farmers' markets, including Deddington. Finally, councils and environmental campaigns, which range from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and Glastonbury, to local residents' associations.

When the US company Whole Foods Market opened the UK's biggest organic store in Kensington, West London, discerning shoppers carried their haul of healthy fodder out of the store in a Canby jute bag.

Celebrity users include Conservative party leader David Cameron, who picked up a Canby jute bag from Occombe Farm Shop on a tour of the West Country earlier this year.

Mr Gould said: "We have produced bags to promote recycling for councils from Norfolk to Sunderland. They last for two or three years in normal use, and then you throw them on the compost heap, where they rot down very quickly."

He is also passionate about the environmental credentials of jute as a crop.

"We do supply cotton bags as well, but only to existing customers in large orders of 1,000-plus. Jute doesn't use any pesticide or fertiliser, and it grows in the monsoon, so it doesn't need irrigation. It's a very organic crop.

"Cotton is much more intensively grown. One third of the world's fertilisers and pesticides are used on cotton. We are introducing organic cotton, but it isn't easy."

Outsourced Having moved the business last year to Oxford's Old Jam Factory in Park End Street, he has outsourced the distribution and taken on three staff, with further expansion planned. He believes the bags are a win-win situation for retailers.

"A typical independent retailer will cut their plastic bag use by a third when they introduce the bags, which is a huge saving. The bags sell for about £2, and they are in daily use, so your name gets seen for far longer. Students use them for books, or as swimming bags, as well as for shopping."

One of his products replaces about 300 plastic bags, and he is confident that jute is the key to an environmentally-friendlier future.

"I would like Oxford to be the first plastic-bag free city. There are towns doing it, but no cities yet. I think it would get a lot of support, because Oxford's full of intelligent people who care about the environment."

And he certainly has no regrets about his career change.

"Having a sabbatical really changed my life. The opportunity just fell into my lap.

"As opposed to writing about something, I am actually doing something.

"The creativity covers the entire process, not just what the bag looks like but how you sell it. Any businessman will tell you that it has to be a creative process, getting someone to say I'll have some' - and each time it's different."

n Contact: 0845 2770122, www.canby.co.uk