Triple Bonus Upcycle: Mesh Bags
First, mess bags are plastic, so avoid buying them if you can. But if you’ve got a few around or if your grocer only offers essentials – like avocados! – in mesh bags, there is an opportunity to do yourself and the earth a favor. Reusing them returns your effort in three ways:
- keeps them out of landfills in the first place (no, they are not recyclable);
- helps you use fewer plastic produce bags at the grocery store;
- keeps kids busy and quiet stringing them for you.
Please see “EcoCool Kids” on the menu at right for step-by-step instructions for making and dressing up these bags!
No little hands for weaving in the drawstrings? (I find it meditative to do it myself.) Just drop the empty bags in your reusable shopping bags and use them with twisty ties at the supermarket instead of single-use plastic bags.
They are more durable than the flimsy bags on rolls in supermarkets. You can also use them for corralling toys, small game parts, things in closets or drawers, make-up bags or just about anything for which you’d use a durable little bag.