Guest Author - Lili Pintea-Reed

Here is lovely grocery tote made from old plastic grocery bags. It will serve to help the earth by recycling all those bags and get the groceries home! One way to save a great bit of petroleum is to use cloth and net bags to carry your groceries. This will save according to the USA Environmental Protection Agency over 380 BILLION plastic bags used in the USA alone each year. These bags area hazard to animals who eat them and die from impactions, or just get trapped in them. Billions of these bags very slowly degrade in landfills. So help the environment, and help your pocketbook, by making your own bags.

The Process is very easy. You just cut the plastic bags into a long spiral strips and then crochet them with a large crochet hook. These could be knitted on large needles, or macraméd and knotted together too! Be creative. The materials are literally everywhere.

MATERIALS:
a large pile of plastic grocery bags
K crochet hook
scissors

DIRECTIONS:
Cut plastic grocery bags into strips 2 inches wide. Cut in a spiral to get the maximum amount of material from each bag.

Chain a foundation of 30 stitches. *Chain one, and then double crochet across.* Repeat for five rows.

Then start to double crochet around the whole outer edge. Go around the edge until the bag is as deep as you need for shopping. Break off end yarn and work through loop working end into bag.

HANDLES:
For handles slip into top edge and chain for thirty stitches or to suit your taste in handles. Slip into top again pull through and work in end. Repeat for other handle.

If you want to use less materials, you can net crochet the bag, or knit it with a large lacey knot stitch. These bags do stretch a bit with wear, so a wide handle will help if you need to carry the groceries a long way on foot, or public transportation.

Enjoy your nice Eco Bag! You can make several and keep them near the door for shopping trips. We find its easy to forget to bring one along, so plan ahead before you shop! Most groceries are trying to encourage this practice (it save them money on bags), so they will fill your homemade bags when you bring them.