HOW TO USE OLD PLASTIC BAGS
Old plastic carrier bags can be used to make yarn. This yarn can then be used to knit with if you have no wool. All that you need is some old plastic bags and some knitting needles.
Once you have made the yarn you can knit this into new and exciting things. You can turn it into clothes or decorations or furniture. You can knit quilts or hangings for inside your house.
It is important to remember that you should wash all bags before you use them. This is because they are not clean. Dirty plastic bags can carry diseases and these can be bad for your health.
INSTRUCTIONS
- Lay the bag flat and fold it in half lengthways
- Fold the bag in half again the same way
- Cut off the handles and the bottom of the bag
- Then cut widthways along the bag in small strips. These should look like small hoops
- Tie all of the strips together. This should make a single long strand
- You can now knit with this!
WHY THIS IS NEEDED IN AFRICA
160,000 plastic bags are used globally every second. Over 5 trillion are used every year. Side by side the number of plastic bags that we use every year can go around the world 7 times. We need to cut down how many bags we are using. But even if we do cut down this does not solve the amount that are still on the planet.
The problem of plastic bags is bad in Africa. This is because they are not properly thrown away in many places. If they are not thrown away then they can clog up sewers and drains. They can also become litter which looks and smells bad.
In an ideal world we would not use plastic bags. It is important to try and cut down on using them. But it is not easy to do this and so we should reuse this waste wherever possible. This means that we are all doing our own part to help the planet and the people around us.
By reusing plastic bags this can help to solve the problems that they create. If we turn them into other things then they will no longer cause such big problems.
