Plastic bags are everywhere. It seems no matter how you try to avoid them you end up with a few lying around the house looking for a new use. While I have a few good go-to reuse options, Care2 has put together a great list of 18 ways to reuse those extra plastic bags. Check them out and share your reuse options after the jump.
Here are Care2's first 6 ideas:
- Dirty Clothes – Stick a plastic grocery bag into your suitcase to tote home your dirty clothes while you’re on vacation. It’s nice to be able to separate your clean clothes from dirty ones, and this lets you do it without taking the plastic bag that most hotels provide.
- Make Plarn – You can cut those bags up and make yourself a ball of plastic yarn for use in all sorts of knit and crochet projects. How cool would it be to upcycle a flimsy plastic bag into a well-made, crocheted one?
- Fuse It - You can use your iron to turn those plastic bags into durable fabrics.
- Scoop the Litter Box – Flushing cat litter is a bit controversial, since cat waste contains toxins that’s harmful to aquatic life, and unfortunately, scooping is a fact of life for cat owners. You’ve got to put that smelly litter somewhere. You’re probably using a plastic bag already, so you may as well RE-use one instead.
- In the Glove Box – If you or someone in your family is prone to car sickness, you can keep a plastic grocery bag in the glove box, just in case you’re not able to pull over in time to avert disaster.
- At Concerts – Amphitheater shows and multi-day music festivals come with a lot of waste, and the trash and recycle bins seem to always overflow by the end. Instead of piling your empties on top of an overflowing bin, use a plastic grocery bag to take your recyclables home at the end of the show.
Find the rest over at Care2.
(Image:Textiles4You)
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Great ideas - I don't think anyone is saying we should never use plastic again, but a dozen every time we go shopping? Totally unnecessary. We use ours on vacation, I don't know how other people keep conditioner / mouth wash / hydrogen peroxide etc from spilling and making a hideous mess (and contaminating my lens cleaner) but we need them for those trips.
I'm actually scavenging plastic bags from people these days. With bringing our own reusable bags everywhere, I'm completely out of garbage bags. I may need to start buying garbage bags soon *gasp*! It's so bad, that my mother in law packs gifts for our daughter in plastic bags instead of newspaper.
I've made plarn and crocheted with it - works GREAT. And if you use the good bags like they have at Target (HDPE vs. LDPE), the plarn is top-rack dishwasher safe.
I've also spun some into twine. I'll have to crochet with it and see how it works for produce bags.
The best idea I have come up with is to donate them to local shelters that hand out clothes and food. They always need them and it is an easy way to help out!
@fancyd I'm the same way! We always use reusable bags so we never have enough bags for trash and our cat's dirty business...
Love the plarn idea.
Has anyone knitted with this (instead of crocheted)?
I'm curious as to how that turned out.
I third fancyd and clothedmuch. My daughter has been collecting plastic bags from her dorm mates and bringing them home for me. Ugh... she's graduated. Now what will I do?
when the kids were toddlers and very prone to car sickness, I tried keeping plastic bags in the car to catch the problems, but I found a lot of plastic bags have a small hole at the end or a rip. Many trips were ruined by slow leaking yuckiness!
From that point on, I stuck to ziploc bags instead. Not only are they leakproof, but once zipped up, they contain the smells too. To this day I keep a box of ziploc bags that I bought at the Dollar store.
Not only can I use it to contain the vomit, but also to ziploc the clothes that happen to get some crap on it too. All without the smell.