Recyled Cindy's Recycled Shopping Bag from Plarn

Plarn is a creative way to recycle plastic bags by turning it into yarn. Plastic bags made into yarn = plarn.  Green crafter’s have been using plarn in place of traditional yarn to crochet and knit all sorts of items.

Some people have made rugs, sculptures, bags and even clothes based on the different colors that plastic bags come in. Using plarn has become so popular that its even been featured on Go Media’s Crafting in Green World blog. You can check out their article on plarn here: Yearn Worthy Yarn: Plarn

Over at My Recycled Bags, Recycle Cindy creates purses, totes and a variety of mixed fabric crafts using plarn. Cindy, also sells her creations along with teaching the rest of us how to make our own plarn.

Even Craft magazine, has featured plarn. Check out their plastic bag fashion article: Plastic Grocery Bags Knit in 1950’s Outfit.

So, how does getting crafty with plarn translate to something good for the environment? For one, it keeps extra bags out of the landfills and two it solves a whole set of environmental problems.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), America uses and tosses 380 billion plastic bags a year. That’s a lot of non-biodegradable garbage. When plastic bags do start to break down, they leach toxic chemical into our soil and water. If we take those bags that we have and do something else with them, we reduce the amount of waste going into our landfills and stop adding to the destruction of our environment.

Also, many sates have begun to pass new taxation that is added to your purchase in the check out lane. If you start to take your own canvas bags you’ll save money and the local environment.

Another aspect, is that by not taking home your purchases in plastic bags you can help lessen the cost of their manufacturing. It takes roughly 12 million barrels of oil to make plastic bags. Reduce your use of them and you can help to make a dent in our oil usage and help lessen the environmental damage that mass manufacturing of plastic bags creates.

It’s time to get crafty with going green and try out some plarn projects of your own. For the best plarn making instructions that we’ve come across check out crafter Kate E. Austin’s Art Blog and her instructional Plarn video.

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