20 Creative Ways to Reuse Plastic Bags
It’s Plastic Free July, and we know you’ve got some plastic bags lying around. Get creative with these amazing ways to reuse plastic bags in your home.
If you’re a Mom, then no matter where you live in the world, you’re sure to have this one thing in your home – a plastic bag full of other plastic bags! Yes, this is a habit that people across the world have, regardless of race or nationality, and the reason can be any.
For most of us, it’s just a way of storing the bags till we find a way to use them. Some of us may reuse them for carrying objects or groceries, but for many of us, they just lie there, till we get tired and toss them out.
Not throwing out the bags may make you feel happy at finally decluttering, but that happiness will be short-lived when you realize what happens to those bags. Here are some facts you need to know:
- Americans use 100 billion plastic bags a year and these need 12 million barrels of oil to manufacture
- The average American family brings home almost 1,500 plastic shopping bags a year, of which only 1 percent are returned for recycling
- Over 200 aquatic species have been affected by plastic pollution and 100,000 marine animals are killed by plastic bags every year
- It takes more than 500 years for a plastic bag to degrade
And if you think all this doesn’t affect you, here’s another fact – the plastic that seeps into our water bodies eventually finds its way into the soil and into the food we eat. We are basically poisoning ourselves with plastic!
With this month being Plastic Free July, we are thinking of ways to reuse plastic bags that you may already have, instead of tossing them out. So here are 20 cool and creative ways to reuse plastic bags – and they look great too!
20 Creative Ways to Reuse Plastic Bags
1. Plastic Bag Yarn (Plarn) –Ways to Reuse Plastic Bags
This is the first thing to learn if you plan to make useful or pretty things with your plastic bags – plastic yarn, otherwise known as plarn. You can crochet, knit or use this plarn just as you would yarn, which means the possibilities are endless! Check out the tutorial over at Good Stuff Mama.
2. Plastic Bag Basket
Instead of storing all your plastic bags in another plastic bag, go ahead and use them to make a basket which you can then use to store other things! Instructables give us a step-by-step guide to make this good-looking basket.
3. Plastic Bag Rug
Want to make a bare spot on your floor look a little better? Make this fun plastic bag rug from My Recycled Bags! Is it just me, or does it look a lot like a jute or coir rug!
4. Plastic Bag Beach Tote
Why take your belongings to the beach in a drab plastic bag, when you can take along this chic beach tote? Felt Magnet shows us how to use up plastic bags to make a good-looking tote, that won’t have trouble with the water!
5. Recycled Plastic Coin Bag
Target may be a place you spend a good deal of money, but you can also use Target bags to hold your money! Check out this cute project from We Can Make Anything where a plastic bag is turned into a cute little coin purse.
6. Plastic Bag Ghosts
Small for Big tells us that you don’t need anything other than large plastic bags to create the perfect Halloween decor! These will sway about in the breeze perfectly, and you can also add some glow-in-the-dark detail to jazz it up.
7. Plastic Bag Jump Rope
Plastic bags can also turn into a fitness accessory! A Childhood List uses plastic bags to make a jump rope – this would be a great project for kids to try at home!
8. Recycled Plastic Bag Gift Bows
Why buy expensive gift bows when you can make equally pretty ones with a plastic bag? Creative Jewish Mom shows us how easy it is to make your gift stand out with a cute little plastic bow.
9. Plastic Bag Pom Poms
If you’ve been around on Instagram or Pinterest in the recent past, you know that pom poms make every single thing look miles cuter! Perk up your interiors almost instantly with these plastic bag pom poms from Creative Colour.
10. Recycled Plastic Bag Flower Pot
Decorative planters can be pretty – and pretty expensive! But you don’t have to spend even a fraction of that when you can make your own one-of-a-kind planter with plastic bags! Check out Be Creative and Happy for instructions to make this.
11. Plastic Bag Pom Pom Decoration
If the pom-poms you saw earlier were great for adding to baskets or boxes, these pom poms from Lulastic are larger and make for impressive decor. Use colors to match your color theme for a more cohesive look.
12. Plastic Bag Lamp
How awesome does this lamp from Instructables look? Anyone who saw this would think you got it at a store, after paying a load of money! This truly takes trash to treasure to the next level!
13. Plastic Bag Coasters
These days probably have you drinking lots of cups of tea or coffee. So keep your desk or work surface clean and tidy with these coasters from Creative Jewish Mom, made from – you guessed it – plastic bags!
14. Watertight Plastic Bag Containers
There are so many situations when you just need a waterproof receptacle to hold something, like when you’re gardening, crafting, or painting. Curbly comes up with the perfect solution for this, with waterproof containers made from plastic bags.
15. Plastic Bag Wreath
We love using wreaths to decorate our doors, and they’re a great way to add a bit of seasonal decor. Queen of the Household makes this easy for us by showing us how to turn plastic bags into any kind of wreath you want.
16. Plastic Bag Flower Craft
Kids will enjoy making these blooms from the Kids Activities Blog out of plastic bags. There are so many ways you can use these flowers – in decor, crafts, or seasonal DIYs.
17. Plastic Bag Blanket
Making a blanket out of plastic bags? Instructables show us it’s possible! You’ll need a good amount of plastic bags, but you can still make it – and it looks quite cozy too!
18. Plastic Bag Kite
Glue Sticks and Gumdrops give us another fun thing to make with plastic bags – a kite! Being light, plastic bags make a great raw material to make kites, helping them go higher and higher up.
19. Plastic Bag Recycled Wall Hanging
If you can’t think of anything useful to make out of plastic bags, check out this project from Creative Colour where they use up plastic bags of different colors to create something that’s quite impressive and frame worthy!
20. Plastic Bag Produce Baskets
Plastic bags are perfect to make little produce baskets that you can use to hold harvested vegetables from your garden, or to get vegetables that you buy from the vendor who wheels his cart in front of your house or building.
Looking at these projects, you must be wondering – ‘are these really made from plastic bags?’ Just imagine, something we just throw away without second thought could actually be used to make so many things that are either useful or pretty – or both!
I use mine to pack up breakable things between seasons or if I’m putting something away for awhile. I love all of these ideas though! I’m gonna have to check them out.
Ps. Why in the world would anyone throw them away?!
Great ideas for using plastic bags! I’ll have to try a few of them.
I am amazed at all the creative things that can be made from recycled plastic bags. I am an American living in South America for many decades. and I am an active environmental/climate change academic and activist. One of my biggest concerns are the plastic bags that are used in massive quantities here in Bolivia to buy and hold purchases and never to be recycled. My idea in addition to supporting the creative reuse of plastic bags for arts & crafts such as you are doing, is to massively make multi-use plastic tote bags and baskets that can be used over and over again to buy at all outdoor and in-door markets and help in this way clean up the environment. I am interested in bringing to Bolivia the technology or machinery for recycling of single-use plastic bags into shoulder bags and baskets for multi-use and for use during years for one household.
Can you please guide me and lead my steps in the right direction. How can I do what I have proposed? I am willing to travel if necessary in order to educate myself and purchase at the end of the trip the technology required.
Thank you,
John
I look forward to your assistance.
Where are the ACTUAL instructions for these? Am I missing something?
Hi Sarah, Click on the orange title link just above each picture. It will lead you to the site that has the detailed instructions.