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How to Make Your Own Inexpensive Green Grocery Bags
Posted by ArtFireContent on 05/11/2011 at 14:27:05
"Going green" has been increasingly popular over the last decade, but it is often difficult to let go of old habits or remember new ones. Switching to using reusable shopping bags is a great way to reduce the number of paper or plastic bags that circulate into land-fills each year. When you first start using them however, it can be hard to remember to bring them. One fix to this problem is to hand-make your grocery bags. It is much harder to forget something you spent time making after all, and it is also a fun project for re-using materials you already have around the house.
When it comes to making a simple bag, you can pretty much use any material you have on hand. This tutorial shows you how to repurpose a pillowcase into a shopping bag. This tutorial uses an old t-shirt, and so does this one from Martha Stewart.
If you can't sew or don't have access to a sewing machine, there are no-sew tutorials like this one available. Even though the bag is tied at the bottom, with enough knots it should be secure enough to handle the average grocery bag load. The level of detail and customization is up to you; here is a collection of 50 Free Patterns.
Despite switching to cloth bags a couple years ago, I have a bunch of plastic bags stuffed in a box in my kitchen closet. I still seem to collect them at random from last minute trips to the store, or on shopping trips to the mall when I don't think to bring them. Even though these can be reused as trashcan liners, that still means they eventually end up in a landfill. If you have a stash of plastic bags too, here are some ways you can reuse them:
Plastic Yarn (and things to make with it)
If you're looking for a little motivation to switch away from plastic bags, check out the short film Plastic Bag. This does for using plastic bags what Toy Story 3 did for getting rid of toys (even if it is a slower, more existential film)! If you aren't interested in making your own bags, remember there are many artisans here on ArtFire that create reusable shopping/grocery bags as well!
