Plastic Bags - Let's do something about them or with them!

Ranked #3,886 in Healthy Living, #74,235 overall

A big problem...a small solution...

Ah...the plastic bag. While they are found everywhere these days, there was a time when they were more difficult to find. Today they're found in the streets, tree branches and streams - in every corner of this planet.

Are Plastic Grocery Bags Sacking the Environment?

John Roach for National Geographic

The "paper or plastic" conundrum that vexed earnest shoppers throughout the 1980s and 90s is largely moot today. Most grocery store baggers don't bother to ask anymore. They drop the bananas in one plastic bag as they reach for another to hold the six-pack of soda. The pasta sauce and noodles will get one too, as will the dish soap.

Plastic bags are so cheap to produce, sturdy, plentiful, easy to carry and store that they have captured at least 80 percent of the grocery and convenience store market since they were introduced a quarter century ago, according to the Arlington, Virginia-based American Plastics Council.

As a result, the totes are everywhere. They sit balled up and stuffed into the one that hangs from the pantry door. They line bathroom trash bins. They carry clothes to the gym. They clutter landfills. They flap from trees. They float in the breeze. They clog roadside drains. They drift on the high seas. They fill sea turtle bellies. Read the entire article on National Geographic

Crochet with Recycled Plastic Bags is Awesome to Look at!

People are Being SOOOO Creative...You CAN, too!

There is an immense richness of ideas and work made by people who are just plain creative or have dreams of saving the environment one piece of trash at a time. What a wonderful world we live in; that we can see all this beautiful (in all senses of the word) work being done...

Bracelet_green_plarn by WiseWellWoman
Bracelet_Plarn_3strand by WiseWellWoman
Bracelets_Plarn_Multi by WiseWellWoman
3D Flower with Stamens by moiracrochetsplarn
3D Flower with Stamens by moiracrochetsplarn
3D Flower with Stamens (Consturction) by moiracrochetsplarn
3D Flower with Stamens by moiracrochetsplarn
3D Flower with Stamens (Consturction) by moiracrochetsplarn
3D Flower with Stamens by moiracrochetsplarn
3D Flower with Stamens (Consturction) by moiracrochetsplarn
3D Flower with Stamens by moiracrochetsplarn
3D Flower with Stamens by moiracrochetsplarn
Day 3 + 4 PLARN_Friendship_Bracelets by WiseWellWoman
Day_3a by WiseWellWoman
Fairy Flower by moiracrochetsplarn
Hofri's Butterfly by moiracrochetsplarn
Fairy Flower by moiracrochetsplarn
Fairy Flower by moiracrochetsplarn
Hofri's Butterfly by moiracrochetsplarn
Fairy Flower by moiracrochetsplarn
automatically generated by Flickr

Tutorials...How To's...DIY

Isn't that what you want? Go ahead...make one!

Recycled Crochet Bags Video Clips

Some TV show clips and how-to's
Plastic Bag Crochet Project
by rassack | video info

172 ratings | 127,405 views
curated content from YouTube

What some countries are doing

Germany - consumers use their own bag or pay a tax at the store for a plastic bag.

Brazil - Initiatives are local: the government of the state of Parana' imposed a deadline (11/18/2007) for grocery stores to come up with alternatives to circumvent the problems. Some stores adopted recycling programs, some are utilizing oxi-degradable plastic (degrades in 18 months) and some are selling reusable bags. The state of Sao Paulo launched an awareness campaign. The Federal government is pushing for garbage recycling, which already happens in numerous communities. Brazilians are very resourceful when it comes to recycling.

USA - Each year, the country uses one hundred billion plastic bags. In San Francisco (California), they were replaced by recycled paper bags. Some manufacturers are using corn and potato starch as a raw material. Reusable shopping bags are all the rage.

The grocery store I go to, Kroger, has a Bag-2-Bag program: You take the bags back to their recycle bin and they make them into new bags.

Bangladesh - Because they clog rainwater drainage networks, the plastic bag was banned. The measure includes the manufacture, marketing and use.

Ireland - The government has imposed a specific tax to inhibit use. The measure caused a 90% reduction in use. The money raised is for actions of environmental protection.

Taiwan - Stores are prohibited from offering free bags to the customer, patrons; they face fines.

South Africa - Government banned the use and drafted penalties of fine and imprisonment.

India - To prevent the ingestion of the bags, and death, by cows (sacred animal), some states banned their production, storage, use, sale and distribution. Penalties for infringement are imprisonment and a fine.

Australia- Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts is supporting Clean Up Australia, a national plastic bag awareness campaign Bag Yourself a Better Environment. Retailers and the community are being asked to reduce the use of plastic shopping bags, increase plastic bag recycling, and reduce the amount of plastic bag litter.

Think you have no use for those bags?

Check these books out...

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  • Reply
    2muchtrash Jun 19, 2011 @ 8:21 pm | delete
    My mother used to knit hats from plastic bags and I tried it but found it tedious. I used to be a prolific knitter, but I think crocheting would be far easier. I like the idea of making them into reusable shopping bags. I would never just throw them away.
  • Reply
    ShellB Jun 3, 2011 @ 11:08 pm | delete
    Great idea to recycle plastic bags! I've always thought the bags could be made into blankets for the homeless but I'm not sure how warm plastic bag blankets would be?
  • Reply
    Apr 14, 2011 @ 9:44 pm | delete
    Great idea to crochet shopping bags. Cool, thanks :)
  • Reply
    StephenC Oct 6, 2010 @ 10:25 am | delete
    I'd like to see teachers collect from their student's families, then send them somewhere to be reused. The only thing I do at the moment is use them for small trash bags. Not the greatest, but it saves me from buying them and creating double. I always get clerks to use as little amount of bags as possible. That is, if I can carry it easily or take it without a bag, I do that. These bags can sometimes pile up rapidly.
  • Reply
    eclypsechic Aug 10, 2010 @ 12:40 pm | delete
    I really loved your lens! The books you included in the Amazon widget are all so interesting. I added your lens to my lensroll on my reusing old magazines lens, hope you don't mind!
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Other sites to visit

Visit my etsy shop to see crochet item using recycled pull tabs (pop tops) from soda and beer cans for purchase.

Visit my other squidoo lens on Pull Tab Crochet with links to wonderful recycled wearable items and how-to's

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PopTopLady

Brazilian national, Teacher , Crafter, Wife, Mother more »

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