Making Mats From Plastic Bags

The mats are lightweight waterproof and help keep plastic bags out of oceans and landfills.

Making mats from plastic bags.

Stop with the whining about using new bags already. Parents can teach about recycling in the house and how plastic bags take years to decompose. Knitters and crocheters will use their experience to test the gauge which will determine the number of plarn stitches. The goal is a 3 by 6 size plastic yarn mat.

Basic knit sleep mat recipe. Crafters from the nanaimo harbour city seniors are turning plastic grocery bags into sleeping mats for the homeless. Each 6 foot by 2 foot mat is made from 600 to 700 recycled plastic grocery bags. Make plarn using the above episode of ask me monday as a guide.

The may 2016 auxiliary magazine featured a follow up to its cucumel s compassionate carpets article it published a few months. Plastic bags 500 700 grocery bags knitting needles size 10 or higher or crochet needles o or p recommended scissors. Meanwhile in norwalk iowa the mighty mat makers meet once a week at st. Each mat takes about 50 hours to make.

How to make plarn. Couple crochets plastic bags to make mats for homeless tucson ariz. Materials to make a sleep mat from plastic bags. 500 700 plastic shopping bags for a person sized mat but can vary depending on what you re using the mat for 10mm or larger crochet hook.

Kold news 13 it s something we all have a stash of in our house plastic bags. Approx 140 plastic bags or 1260 yds of plarn size us 11 8mm scissors. John the apostle catholic church to create their own mats using about 700 plastic bags apiece. Cast on 72 stitches.

Gauge 12 sts x 24 rows 4 10 cm in garter stitch. All bags are used bags i have cut and stored flat. One easy project appropriate for ages six to adult is weaving a doormat from left over bags. Flatten the plastic bag to best you can and straighten any of the bags creases.

So far they have spent at least 100 hours on the project producing 18 mats that have been handed out to the homeless and there are many more to come. Now one sierra vista couple is using.