Spill the beans... on uses for old plastic carrier bags

Heinz

Screwed up, the can be used a second time as padding in parcels (Ebay sales etc.) instead of those horrible polystyrene chips or those air-filled polythene bubbles Amazon and others use.

building_with_lego

I made a football out of carrier bags at a Send a Cow African day recently- lots of scrunched up newspaper covered with carriers, then wrapped with twine in a sort of net arrangement to hold it all together. Highly satisfying to make, and the children think it's great!

carovi_2

I also use bags in my bins, but also make plastic yarn to make shopping bags and door mats. I made a sun hat for when I'm gardening. Good idea from a forumite to use them in hanging baskets.

muldoon1972

My husband who is a farmer uses them tied to bamboo canes to help scare the pigeons away from the vegetable plants that he has just planted. This is also something that can be done on a smaller scale in your garden at home.

penarthian

Here in Wales supermarkets have reported a fall of 96% in the use of single use carrier bags since the 5p charge was introduced last October, fabulous!
This means we do not have spare bags waiting at home to be recycled and now automatically take our own multi use bag with us when ever we shop

On a recent visit to a supermarket in England I was amazed at the number of shoppers wheeling out trolleys full of shopping bagged up in single use carriers.

ChaniLM

babyshoes wrote: »

A while ago I wanted to try a method for making them into thicker plastic sheets from which you could make a strong bag, but never got round to it. The theory is that you cut flat sheets from your bags, layer them up with interesting patterns on the outside (about 3-6 layers, iirc) and iron them on low between sheets of greaseproof paper. They are supposed to bond together and make strong sheets which can then be sewn or stuck together into a bag, pencil case, wallet etc. Extra thick sheets can be made for handles. I think the trick was to get the iron low enough not to burn holes in the plastic, and keep it moving all the time. You would also need a decent paper overlap to stop plastic melting to your iron or ironing board!

I have done this several times, with a few bags you can make a fairly strong material to make more bags out of and with many layers you get a strong and only minimally flexible plastic. You need to make sure you use biodegradable ones (I use those for rubbish bags). I try and avoid getting plastic carrier bags to begin with, I usually have a backpack with me, but when you do have another one I try and re use them in some way.
My blog Geek Chambers (not allowed to put link as newbie) shows how I made a bin out of plastic bags.

dogstarheaven

carovi wrote: »

make plastic yarn to make shopping bags and door mats. I made a sun hat for when I'm gardening. Good idea from a forumite to use them in hanging baskets.

not heard of these crafty ideas before other than lining baskets with. i did this about 3-4 years ago with a balcony planter and to this very day, it's rather dessicated looking!:eek: good job it's at the back garden!

muldoon1972 wrote: »

My husband who is a farmer uses them tied to bamboo canes to help scare the pigeons away from the vegetable plants that he has just planted.

i do this for tying the canes together for making them into wigwams for my beans and other climbers

ChaniLM wrote: »

My blog Geek Chambers (not allowed to put link as newbie) shows how I made a bin out of plastic bags.

i shall check this out. did it take a long time?

thanks for all those who's mentioned about wrapping food in. i do this all the time. why waste money on clingfilm when these bags are available. i try and minimise my use of them, i do tend to have a fabric bag or two in my handbag but when they get shopping in them, i tend to forget to put them back in the bag once the shopping's been emptied.:eek: bad habit..

dogstarheaven

building_with_lego wrote: »

I made a football out of carrier bags at a Send a Cow African day recently- lots of scrunched up newspaper covered with carriers, then wrapped with twine in a sort of net arrangement to hold it all together. Highly satisfying to make, and the children think it's great!

sounds a great idea, do you know whether this is a regular event yearly at various places in the UK?

Heinz wrote: »

Screwed up, the can be used a second time as padding in parcels (Ebay sales etc.) instead of those horrible polystyrene chips or those air-filled polythene bubbles Amazon and others use.

wouldn't you need loads of bags to make enough padding for this? or would you inflate them a bit and tying a knot?

building_with_lego

dogstarheaven wrote: »

sounds a great idea, do you know whether this is a regular event yearly at various places in the UK?

wouldn't you need loads of bags to make enough padding for this? or would you inflate them a bit and tying a knot?

Hello :wave:
I have no idea, I'm afraid, but I'd suspect that it's more local to the West Country- they're based in Somerset.
We used 5 sheets of The Guardian and four carriers for each ball- you scrunch up the paper into a tight ball then put it into the corner of a carrier and twist it then turn the bag inside out over the ball (if you see what I mean) over and over, with another bag to cover up the previous etc. We had four bags giving about 8-10 layers over the paper, then began wrapping and tying the twine. (If only I could work out how to insert pictures I'd show yer .)

AHA! Found this page from Send A Cow giving full instructions. Happy footballing :rotfl:

dogstarheaven

Saver0811 wrote: »

I put a plastic bag over my computer monitor to dim down the previous two posts !!!

or you could turn down your brightness and save on power!:o