What To Do With Those Plastic Bags

Plastic bags are bad news. Reusable bags are much better. But what happens when you have old plastic bags sitting around from before you switched to reusables? Or if a plastic bag blows onto your lawn? You might think you can just toss it in the recycling bin. But, surprisingly, you can’t. Or shouldn’t. When you do, the bags clog up the recycling machinery (that’s what you’re seeing in the picture). But that doesn’t mean that they’re garbage either. A lot of stores that still use plastic bags will take the plastic bags back for reuse. You can also toss them in with your reusable bags and reuse them yourself. They hold way less than most reusable bags, but they can come in handy for things that may make a mess. Like overripe berries. Or that head of lettuce that just got sprayed with the grocery store mini sprinklers and is now dripping wet. If you’re crafty, you can even crochet with those plastic bags! Cut the bags into strips, then crochet with the strips the same as if they were yarn! You can even crochet larger and heavier duty reusable bags out of those little old wimpy plastic bags. If you do a search for “plastic bag crochet,” you will find a ton of ideas and tutorials. There are also tutorials for how to make the plarn (plastic yarn). A lot of people have an intense multi-step process for it that involves folding, and measure, and cutting, and weaving, and tying to make the plarn. But I just grab a bag, start cutting a strip, and keep cutting around and around and around. Sort of like peeling an apple around and around and getting the peel to all come off in one continuous curly strip.