Knitting plastic bags

and other recycling crafts

Recycle your plastic bags! It has come to that point where if we don’t take responsibility individually then we are just going to be fighting a losing battle. Just taking those extra little steps everyday you could help in this constant battle to save the environment.

Personally nothing winds me up more than seeing people throw their rubbish on the floor but even when rubbish is placed into bins the mighty wind whips it straight back out again. With companies looking into ways of reducing packaging I have been researching

ways of recycling my own waste in interesting ways.

According to Plymouth University, one third of fish caught of the South West coast of England have been found to have plastic contamination from sources that include plastic bags.

The dangers of this are blockages in their digestive system and s false sense of being full.

Researchers estimate there are 500, 000, 000, 000 plastic bags used every year now that is a lot of plastic to later be found in our rivers!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/Jan/24/fish-channel-plastic-contamination

Take your plastic

bag and lay it flat

Using scissors cut

off the handles

Fold into a long strip

A step by step guide to creating your own knitted bags using up all your old plastic bags.

Tie the pieces together to

create on long strip which

you will use for ‘yarn’.

Cast onto large

Knitting needles

and knit away!

Cut the strip into 1 inch sections

Here are some facts about the environmental impact of plastic bags:

Plastic bags cause over 100,000 sea turtle and other marine animal deaths every year when animals mistaken them for food

The manufacture of plastic bags add tonnes of carbon emissions into the air annuallyIn the UK, banning plastic bags would be the equivalent of taking 18,000 cars off the roads each yearBetween 500 billion and 1 trillion plastic bags are used worldwide each year

Approximately 60 - 100 million barrels of oil are required to make the world’s plastic bags each year.

Most plastic bags take over 400 years to biodegrade. Some figures indicate that plastic bags could take over 1000 years to break down. This means not one plastic bag has ever naturally biodegraded.China uses around 3 billion plastic bags each day.

In the UK, each person uses around 220 plastic bags each year

Around 500,000 plastic bags are

collected during Clean Up Australia Day each year. Clean Up Australia Day is a nationwide initiative to get as many members of the public to get out and pick up litter from their local areas. Unfortunately, each year in Australia approximately 50 million plastic bags end up as litter.

http://www.natural-environment.com/blog/2008/01/10/environmental-impact-of-plastic-bags/

This bag has been constructed using weaved drinks cans and knitted bin bags.

You start off with your drinks can and cut off the top and bottom of the can. Slice down the side so you can becomes a flat sheet of metal. Cut this into small strips and tape half of them down to a flat surface.Using the remaining strips weave them together. This

created a weaved sheet which I then folded in half and attached using thread. I used an awe to stab holes in the sides to pull the thread through.

I then knitted a long strip using the bin bags which I folded in half lengthways and then in half again. Sewing along the sides leaving the top edges free I was left with two pouches attached to each other. I places the weaved

beer cans inside each pocket to make it sturdier. Using another strip of weaved drinks can I stuck a ring pull to the end and used this for the clasp. The ring-pull ties to the knitted part of the bag. Ring pulls have been attached together to create this chain handle.

How to make a ring pull chain.

Take four ring-pulls and cut the widest hole in half so the ring-pull can be manipulated inside the smaller hole of the next four ring-pulls. Continue doing this until your chain is the desired length.

This bag has been made just using knitted plastic bags. Its shape is quite loose and baggy due to there being nothing to stiffen it. The handle is more plastic bag but braided rather than knitted. To create the fastening take a button that has four holes. Thread some plastic bag yarn

through a large eyed needle and use it to wrap the plastic around the button. Keep going until you have gone all the way round. I have used a different colour to add a cross this just makes it stand out against the bag.

To give the knitted bags more substance you can use an iron heated to maximum temperature. Put down a few towels and place your bag on top. Place some heatproof paper on top of the bag and use the iron to gently stiffen and melt the plastic. Make sure all the windows are open as plastic fumes will be present during this process.

This rug has also been created using just plastic bags The possibilities are endless so get crafting!