Used Plastic Bags: Art Projects for Dummies
Some ordinary people have found extraordinary ways to recycle plastic bags. This article provides links to tutorials and interesting videos to learn how you too could do your part in saving the earth without any extreme efforts. Create useful reusable bags or decorative art pieces from plastic bag trash.
We all know that very few plastic bags are recycled and the ones that are consume so much energy that it kills the main objective of recycling. Replacing plastic bags with paper bags, as a greener option, has been argued for years by environment conscious people. Is it reasonable to cut trees for the paper bags to reduce the plastic waste?
If you ask me, I think the best thing to do is first reuse the bags sitting at home for all your shopping – carry your own bags, don’t add any more to the waste. If they are not usable anymore then recycle them. If you want to get creative and save some green then instead of buying a bag for grocery, create your own recycled shopping bag from the existing ones. How? You’ll see. But before that I’d like to share some other really simple green flowers with you.
I know it’s an orange flower, but it’s made from reusing a used plastic bag and that is what makes it a “green flower”. See how to make this beautiful flower at keetsa.com. Then make a bunch to decorate your home. More plastic bag flowers and how to make them are at Instructables.com. These are prettier than the ones above, but then they require more work too. Check them out anyway!
When I was in school, I had made these really pretty flowers using an old pair of stockings. One day I come back home to find my dog nicely chewing onto them. If only we had the dog leashed. Talking about dog leashes, here’s a video showing how to make a leash using plastic bags:
I thoroughly enjoyed watching the video lying down on my comfortable cushions, which reminds me I still haven’t gotten covers for them as yet! Maybe I should make some plastic crochet ones like the ones below.
Believe me you, they are made from used plastic bags crochet. How do you knit plastic bags? Well, watch the video:
An alternative method for making plastic yarn (plarn) is in this video here. You get a long continuous plarn by this method, but then I doubt its durability as its 1-ply. Other things that you can try making:
For more amazing items, plastic bag project pictures visit Cristen s website. I was really impressed with all the stuff on her website. For someone as young as her to have such creativity is amazing. I am sure people like her start out really really young, like when they are 4 or 5 year old. Gifted kids I must say. Oh, this UK magazine website has these really neat ideas for kids to make fish mobiles and plastic-bag footballs. The instructions on there are pretty simple to follow.
While we are talking about kids, here’s a durable kite made from, yes right- used plastic bags! Get the step by step instructions on wikihow.com. This simple kite is both, fun to make and fly.
I had a lot of fun a few days back. I too made something from reusing old plastic bags, no it was not a kite or flower. I had been shopping for Halloween in target so when I got home, I realized I had about 3-4 plastic bags from target. They, the bags, have such a nice print I just had to make something out of them. So here’s what I did:
How did I make that? Well, by fusing a few bags together to make a “plastic fabric”. Once you have the fabric, you could make about anything you desire from it. And once the water proof, washable reused plastic slippers were done, I had some more plastic fabric left, so I made a matching pouch to keep money in.
Next I am going to try out these dustbins.
Again, these are made by fusing several plastic bags to get a tough and stiff material. Here’s a video for you to watch on how to fuse plastic bags to make plastic fabric:
I prefer “seeing and learning”, but if you would like to read a tutorial on making plastic fabric, then go to craftster.com. Panic_paislee has another idea, she makes headbands from fusing plastic bags then sticking them onto fabric pieces. Here’s a Link to her page.
And finally a video showing how to make messenger bags out of plastic bags. You can use a similar technique and design to make your own reusable grocery bag – get green people!
Further readings
- Mind-blowing Art Pieces from Used Plastic Bags for more ideas.
- Plastic Bags Banned Around the Globe to Save the Earth by BC Doan
- An Old Toothbrush is Your Handiest New Tool
- Weekly Handy Tips Series: Reusing Cosmetics Before Trashing
So you see, there are endless possibilities to reduce waste. You just need to have the will do it.
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32 Comments
RJ Evans, posted this comment on Oct 19th, 2008
Love it! Great uses for plastic bags and, let’s face it, there are zillions out there that will not biodegrade for a long time – so we may as well!!
MJ Taylor, posted this comment on Oct 19th, 2008
I just love creative ideas, but this one really suprised me. How do they make them flowers out of plastic bags. That’s a cool way of making some extra money on the side. I notice the lady with the handbag made out of plastic. This is all original ideas I might even try and make something out of mine.
Hein Marais, posted this comment on Oct 19th, 2008
WOW! This is a excellent way of getting rid of all the plastic bags that pollute our wonderful earth.
Juancav, posted this comment on Oct 19th, 2008
Wonderful ways recycling plastic.
Paula Mitchell-Bentley, posted this comment on Oct 19th, 2008
Great ideas and article. I like all the upcycling ideas and how you came up with some of your own. Very creative!!!
eddiego65, posted this comment on Oct 20th, 2008
Wonderful article of creative ideas of recycling or reusing plastic bags. The environment need all the help it can get.
BC Doan, posted this comment on Oct 20th, 2008
Wonderful article!
Atihcoor, posted this comment on Oct 20th, 2008
I am amazed at the creativity and the sensibility to reuse these bags! Very inspiring…I hope this articles reaches thousands so we all can start thinking creatively about recycling the “trash” around us!
neelam pandey, posted this comment on Oct 20th, 2008
very informative and the pictures are very beautiful and creative as well!!
Ruby Hawk, posted this comment on Oct 21st, 2008
Very imaginitive ways to use plastic bags. The flowers are beautifull and the bag practical. Anything to keep them out of the landfills. I use all I have one way or another but eventually they all go in the landfill unless they are used in asphalt and such. Let us hope companies will continuelly find new ways to use them in other products untill they can do away with them altogether.
Rookie Expert, posted this comment on Oct 23rd, 2008
Thank you each one of you for the comments. I do feel that even a small step matters. This article is really close to my heart and I do hope people will use a few ideas from here and help reduce plastic bags trash!
Amit G, posted this comment on Oct 24th, 2008
Nice! Never thought the grocery bag would be good for anything besides clogging up my neighbor’s sprinklers..
carolynjlau, posted this comment on Oct 28th, 2008
excellent ideas – thanks!
i used to fuse plastic bags, then stopped when i followed a thread arguing against fusing as heating plastic releases dioxins into the air which have to end up somewhere, and is therefor more damaging to us/our ecosystems then just remaining as ‘inert’ bags…if anyone can dispel this argument, would really appreciate it as fused plastic is a great medium to work with.
C Jordan, posted this comment on Oct 29th, 2008
Love the idea of recycling as art. Some good research there, well done
Alberto j. Almarza, posted this comment on Oct 30th, 2008
you guys have to see the single most amazing plastic bag artist of our day: Joshua Allen Harris. He makes inflatable creatures that come alive in subway vents!
Adam Henry Sears, posted this comment on Dec 11th, 2008
Hi Rookie, this is a great article, I like it a lot.
Rookie Expert, posted this comment on Dec 14th, 2008
Would like to thank all you guys for showing interest in the ideas above. Your comments and feedback is very encouraging.
William L Domme, posted this comment on Jan 5th, 2009
Never, ever would have imagined this was a possibility. When I used to see plastic bags all I saw was a rope around the neck of the planet. I’m going to show my wife this, she’ll flip. Thanks.
ALien_I, posted this comment on Jan 19th, 2009
Great Article!
Rookie's Expert Sister ;), posted this comment on Jan 21st, 2009
Great article, one of the most informative ever. Way to inspire people to go a little bit greener. Love it and love u for all the inspiration.
suresh, posted this comment on Feb 16th, 2009
an encouraging article indeed
Shangri-la, posted this comment on Feb 21st, 2009
Wow! totally impressed with the recycled slippers but there are no instructions on how to make them :0( is there a site where I can get some more information on how to make the slippers?
Rookie Expert, posted this comment on Feb 24th, 2009
Dear Shangri-la,
Thanx for your interest in the article and the slippers. I had made these slippers just for fun, so unfortunately I cant give you any url to find the instructions. All I did was to first make the plastic fabric, that I made by ironing about 10 layers of plastic (the Target bags have a nice print, that’s what I’ve used). The video provides detailed instructions on how to make the plastic fabric. Then I cut out the shape of the slipper, a 2 inch strip for the belt and simply stitched the strip in the base. Its really simple, hope you enjoy making yours and using them!!
Regards,
Rookie
Virginia Wolfe, posted this comment on Mar 28th, 2009
great article. i am gonna include it in a blog. i will stop back by to leave the link!
Virginia Wolfe, posted this comment on Mar 28th, 2009
heres the link to the blog that your article is posted in. have a great day!!!
Rookie Expert, posted this comment on Apr 16th, 2009
Thanx for the love Virginia.
CHAN LEE PENG, posted this comment on May 16th, 2009
These are all good ideas to use plastic as it’s very hard to be degraded even burry for 10 years beneath the soil!!!
malenalopez30, posted this comment on Jul 29th, 2009
These are so cool! I love it! I am gunna try them as soon as I possibly can… Like now! Thank you
Rookie Expert, posted this comment on Sep 22nd, 2009
Haha, Malena Lopez, Im glad you liked them.
T.Rex McGoogle, posted this comment on Nov 9th, 2009
Very useful article. So resourceful you are.
Sujata Tibrewala, posted this comment on Jan 27th, 2010
here is some of the stuff I tried of paper and plastic
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Glynis Smy, posted this comment on Oct 19th, 2008
What a fantastic article!! I am going to look at the flower things for my daughters wedding arrangements, she loves recycling stuff. My other daughter is a beautician and when she has done a pedicure she uses littel disposable slippers for the nails to dry off, guess what I am going to show her!! any article that has the word for dummies gets my attention but this is clever and fun! Thumbs up!