Plastic bag hell...

A few months ago, I asked friends to save me their plastic shopping bags because I had found a way to send them to plastic bag heaven, a little retirement community for the bags instead of just tossing them into our already filthy environment. I can cut the bags into strips, loop them together to create a plastic 'yarn', and crochet/knit the bags into other durable shopping totes. Well, a number of people saved a lot of bags, and they apparently do a LOT of shopping too. I have now found myself in plastic bag hell.

You can see the ball of plastic yarn I've finished so far in the front. And those bags of bags of bags makes up only about 1/3 of all the bags I received. The trunk of my car is also full of them. I'm guessing I have somewhere around 400-500 bags. I'll be cutting bags into strips for another couple of days, I hope to finish this week so I can actually start making the totes soon, that will be the fun part!
If you're interested in checking it out or yourself, here is the pattern that inspired the project. And here are some other crafty plastic bag ideas.

I also found this guy who makes 3D art and creatures from old newspapers. Very useful in NY where newspapers are discarded even more readily than plastic bags! A little creepy, but very cool.


listening to: Rasputina - You Don't Own Me