{"id":18621,"date":"2015-05-04T11:55:39","date_gmt":"2015-05-04T15:55:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress-367309-1145705.cloudwaysapps.com\/?p=18621"},"modified":"2015-05-04T11:55:39","modified_gmt":"2015-05-04T15:55:39","slug":"diy-plarn-mats-for-the-homeless-a-great-use-for-plastic-shopping-bags","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/diy-plarn-mats-for-the-homeless-a-great-use-for-plastic-shopping-bags\/","title":{"rendered":"DIY Plarn Mats For The Homeless: A Great Use For Plastic Shopping Bags"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Last time I checked, the conundrum over shopping bags was still ongoing. Isn’t paper environmentally preferable to plastic, and reusable bags better than both? That’s the standard thinking in green circles; there are some legitimate arguments out there for the plastic bag status quo<\/a>, however. I’m not going to try to settle that one today, or even really contribute to the debate. Rather, I wanted to share not just another idea I’ve found for making use of plastic shopping bags<\/a>, but a bona fide movement<\/a>: “plarn” mats.<\/p>\n

Plarn? That’s a mashed-up word for plastic yarn, a string material made from plastic shopping bags. Unlike plastic lumber and other common materials made from recycled bags, plarn doesn’t require shipping bags off to a recycler: you can make it yourself.<\/p>\n

That’s what Wayne Abadie of Luling, Louisiana is doing: specifically, he’s turning plastic shopping bags into plarn mats for the homeless. After finding a mat made of the material<\/a>, Wayne got online and discovered others making these\u00a0mats – often church groups. So far, he’s made 14 of the mats – it’s not a fast process – and donated them to a New Orleans church for distribution. He’s also teaching workshops on making the mats.<\/p>\n

How to Join the Plarn Mats Movement<\/h3>\n

I followed Wayne’s lead, did a little Googling, and discovered that many people are not only upycling bags into mats, but sharing their methods online. The best instructions I’ve found so far come from Fine Craft Guild<\/a>, which shared Dawn Warmbold’s video that walks you through the process of making a mat. Take a look:<\/p>\n