I love how even the simplest and seemingly worthless items can get transformed into works of art! Such creative & amazing finds! That red clutch is awesome:) Great article, Alison!

As much as we hate the plastic bags we really need them. Did you watch latest Stossel?

How cute!! BTW - I use my reusable bag when I go to the mall or grocery. I love it, no more bags collecting dust in my hall closet!!

oh my gosh!! seeing so many plastic bags twisted up in trees drives me bonkers. what a positive way to highlight and present the argument that it's vital we all switch completely over to biodegradable bags NOW. :)

Great article !

Awesome video and article!!

What a timely article for me. I'm doing a demo on fuzing plastic bags at the American Craft Council in St. Paul, MN next weekend.

ooh... I've been wanting to do more with fused plastic!

This is great... love those bibs!!!

Am I the only one who has taken a canvas bag into a store and then forgot that it was on my arm.. until the cashier has already put my purchases in a plastic bag... Oops. :)

Profound video. The images of all the bags in the landfill and the bags in the ocean are a real eyeopener. I am getting in the habit of using my reusable canvas bags every time I shop. Brilliant repurposing of plastic bags by Etsians! Love the bib!

Awesome article, thanks!!

Wow! Finding a use for those pesky bags is so crucial to my sanity... I love the idea of bags FROM bags. Awesome.

Wow.. such great ideas.... I carry cloth bags o the grocery.. doing my part to be environmentally sensitive..:) www.twitter.com/florealdesigns www.facebook.com/florealdesigns

great article. i have seen clothes at a local craft store here in metro vancouver made out of plastic bags and also nylons, they were amazing. and every year there is a fashion show at a local gallery that features recycled items. there are some amazing items entered in this show. http://www.wearableartawards.com/winners.php

Great article! Love the fused plastic necklace.

very interesting.... thanks, Alison!

The video is nice but a bit to long.

I detest plastics bags & have been using reusable oil cloth & fabric bags for a long time. Seattle considered a plastic bag ban last year - sadly the legislation did not address some of the concerns various communities had & failed.

I like your comparison to a cockroach, Alison. ICK. I also can't stand plastic bags. It's neat to see someone's idea of a plastic bag life-cycle. And what neat up-cycled renewed creations you found here! I have a tote with my raven illustration on them.. I need to get some more made. They work wonderfully for groceries, library trips, and craft night at me ma's! :)

Great article!

Thanks for reminding us that there is some wonderful artful bags we can use instead of the dreaded plastic.

i recycle bags - just not palstic! i'm going to try though!!

you got to be careful concerning fumes when heating though.. wear a mask!!

Extremely creative video!

How COOL!

That's pretty great... I loved the video, even though I was at work and had no audio!

It's great to see so many folks keeping plastic bags out of landfill & recycling them into something unique, fun & desirable (rather than disposeable) But when we finally manage to achieve our goal of no plastic grocery bags, what will they all do for materials? :-)

love your comparison with cockroaches and plastic bags! They are that frustrating, but my husband doesn't yell and run from them! haha. I wish we could totally eliminate them! But at least we can do our part by using our own fabric or recycled bags!

and there is a mass of plastic bags in the pacific ocean the size of Texas. This is such an important eco topic thanks for the article and the cool recycled pics!

That was a great film, and it I did find it hilarious at times. The last line is truly powerful. Thanks for sharing this!

wow - great video and very cool upcycled items - awesome topic!

the video was eye opening and i enjoyed all 18 minutes of it. makes me rethink the choices i make at the grocery store.

I always try to have a few totes in the car - great article!

Great article!good ideas

Unique and breathtaking film.

and the awesome film that did mention the vortex!

Great article and thanks for featuring us upcyclers!

Wow! Such cool and inventive stuff made with plastic bags!. I recently gave away the coolest quilted plastic bag tote.

That film was amazing. I liked how it showed a responsible person (the Maker) busily reusing her plastic bag, and yet it still ended up not making much of a difference, especially if you live somewhere where cities and municipalities require you to bag biodegradeable things like dog poop in plastic bags. They claim it's to protect the water table, and yet they do nothing about massive agricultural runoff, for example. I was kinda rooting for the main bag and the red bag to get together and have pink bag children...

Great article!

Many film makers have used the blowing grocery bag...I think even Spike Lee. Loved watching it. Thanks.

Whew, that was a long one, but worth hanging in there for that last line. Great. Thank You!

I loved the comparison to cockroaches ! Its amazing, how we have grown to become dependent on plastic bags. I always try to keep cloth bags in our car , just in case I have to run into the store for something. Always cuts down on using plastic bags. Love the article.

Love it.

Great video and purpose! Love the plastic clutch.

Very intense, reflective journey of a paper bag and all the experiences, Really nice film work and nice soothing narrative Reveals a lot about what humans have done with all their packaging, nighmares of too much packaging build up in natures life

Great focus on what we can all do to help...I'm proud that some of my products are re-purposed (cardboard tubes), and we'll be doing more and more-using re-purposed wood, in the next month or so.

p.s. one great re-use of plastic bags is stuffing the bows of the christmas ribbon I have been using for over a decade...after the holidays I stuff plastic bags in the loops of the bows, thereby saving the felt ribbon for re-use and coming up with a useful place for the plastic bags, which I no longer get from the grocery store. I re-use paper bags in shipping, and have converted to cloth totes almost totally.

I always bring reusable bags. When I forget (hey, I'm not perfect and the mother of five six and under to boot!) I get paper bags which I reuse and then recycle. I have an addiction to reusable bags though. I use them at the library, the farmer's market, as a diaper bag, to carry my crochet work... They're really SO useful!

I have a ton of reusable bags but Im always forgetting them. I need to store them in the car. I really hate plastic bags but have always used them for cat poos, think Ill switch to paper :P

Used to re-use and recycle plastic bags but ours degrade so fast now that there's just no chance!!

Thank you for this wonderful article!

Very cool stuff!

Absolutely amazing film. Thank you so much for sharing this with us!

Absolutely amazing video. Thanks so much for sharing this with us!

awesome items! i know so many people with an overwhelming supply of plastic grocery bags; makes me want to learn to think creatively and upcycle those bags into something amazing!

Poignant and beautiful. Had a very ubi sunt quality to it.

Wonderful ending....I wasn't expecting that...I'm sure it could be taken in different ways, but had a spiritual quality to it for me. Thanks!

That was awesome!

that video was very interesting/sad... I wish people would RECYCLE more.... Please check out my shop!

Such an interesting perspective!! and the comparison between a plastic bag and a cockroach is so true! I have hated the incessant crunchy noise of those bags for a long time. One of my pet peeves when I first got married was that my husband and his parent grabbed one of those annoying bags for anything and everything. (At least the bags were being recycled, though.) But last summer, I made a whole brand new set of my fabric bags for my in-laws, at their request, in their choice of fabrics - they call them their "Andrea bags." I'm always making more b/c I keep finding more and more uses for them, and I almost have my husband trained to pick up a fabric bag instead of a noisy plastic one! I have a half-dozen or so that are dedicated to grocery duty and several more that hang by the door ready to hold books or t-ball stuff or snacks for the park, whatever! Here's an example: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=11175220 I must get some more listed!

That was so beautiful. It actually made me tear up, but I could probably blame that on pms... I stopped using plastic a long time ago, but I still have a lot that I've been using for trash bags. I think I'm gonna find some biodegradable bags and try to recycle the remaining plastic ones...I wanna be a good maker. If you want to know if you have a local plastic bag recycling center go to http://www.plasticbagrecycling.org/plasticbag/s01_consumers.html and put in your state. Nothing close to me, but I'm gonna call Publix, Kroger, etc and see if any have a collection bin.

great video and fun items

Awesome! Awful...Beautiful.....I'm a greenist,recyclist and this video should be put out into the world for everyone to see and digest! I think it's on youtube.com. I hope so! So to eveyone out there, if we could only take something as simple as a plastic bag, and realize the life of a plastic bag, which we saw in this video: what it does, what it doesn't do... and go forth... Retro fit everyones lives in the world to being upcycled, a recyclist, a greenist, a grower of food and much much more...... When you take your old stuff,discarded stuff, REALLY think about it before you put it into the landfill. Try so hard to recycle it into something more purposeful, useful or perhaps Art! Donated it to your local charity..swap it with a friend, give it to the homeless. Make a PLEDGE TO YOURSELF and never forget that we ONlY have ONE life on this PLANET, make use of everything, always and forever... JBF.

thanks for the article! we all need to be more aware...about recycling and being just a little more 'green' where we can! ((i carry my fabric tote bags with me...in my car...and unfortunately, don't ALWAYS remember to bring them into the store...til i'm standing at the register...oh well...)) let's be kind to the earth everyday! :)

I like it .the movie remind me to the windy scene of dancing leaves in American Beauty.For myself usage of plastic bags, I fold them into tri-angle shaped then stock for carrying my rice and food to give to the monks in the morning.

Why the plastic bag had its purpose, it is time to change to a new way of bagging our groceries and get help eliminate the palstic bag....the question is not "paper or plastic?" which was coined by Gordan Dancy the inventor of the high density plastic t-bag, which is my father-n-law for the record...the new question should be "did you bring your bag today?" That would be your reusable bag. My wife, the daughter of Gordan is out to replace what her father so famously invented some 35 years ago. She has put in the the market the first reusable shopping bag system. They are 4 bags in one so it makes it easy to keep up with and they hold all your groceries....perfect for Moms They were just featured on the Today Show last week. Check them out at MYECO.com

I'm so glad I'm not the only one who keeps the canvas bags in the car... and still forgets to take them into the store! Why can't someone invent a biodegradable bag that is sort of like plastic?

wow!

I crinch every time the cashier wants to use plastic bags. I have to jump up and say No, use my reusable bag. And if I forget them.. oh, it makes me so sick every time. But the worst is when people leave their garbage at the beach, in the plastic bag... that's sick.

So true. I am not a fan of plastic bags; they are all over polluting. Our grocery store in St. Louis recollects them for recycling, and many of use give them back for that purpose. Unfortunately, many do not recycle them. We now use canvas bags of our own--just make sure they are kept clean! They can start bacteria from leaky foods in the bags, which can then enter us---and then we are sick. Kept clean, I believe we should use the canvas!

reuse and re-purpose are good in that they slow down the process...but the fact is many beautiful items made from plastic bags--and most things made from plastic--are not recyclable, and thus will eventually end up in landfill or killing ocean wildlife. :( rather than re-purposing plastic, how about trying to replace the plastic in your life with biodegradable organic materials like cotton, bamboo, paper, wool, and silk (crafts, clothing)...glass (food containers, beads)...and metal (drink containers i.e. kleen canteen, zippers, jewelry materials)

this was a beautifully done video!!!

I LOVE the American Flag!!

Wow! Amazing video! Very impressive and thought provoking.

A little song to remind you: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YS9ZMXPgsEc

A little song to remind you to take your canvas bags to the supermarket: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YS9ZMXPgsEc

all I can say is wow amazing job.

I've had this video in my bookmarks and on my FB site for some time...I just love it..brings it all home, lots of reflecting..... I'm Jayne, Dunsmuirs Queen of Recycling. http://www.etsy.com/shop/ruddlecottage CIWMB Member. Also www.ruddlecottage.net So I've been making a few plastic shopping bags, Shoulder Bags....It took 40 plastic bags to make my shoulder bag, incredible labor, and who has 40 throw away plastic bags at hand....love the results. Thanks for posting this video.... My best Jayne

Really makes you think!!!! Very good video, had my family watch it too. :o)

It is possible to cry over a stupid plastic bag.. I did. this was incredible. Thank you for the video..!!!

I insist on the free carrier bags because I use them for dog waste when I take my dog out that’s recycling. All the Muppets that use the "bag for life" crap from supermarkets don’t realise that you would have to use one of these "bags for life" 120 times before it even becomes "green". And I bet the bag for life bag doesn’t do what is says on the tin i.e. asda will replace your "bag for life" if it wears out! Scouse. vinyl gloves