Ladies: next time you are out looking for a new purse, how about heading to your pantry, or wherever else you keep all of the plastic bags you get from the grocery store or shopping center? A central Ohio woman has been making purses and handbags out of used grocery bags for the last several years.
Marcia Trakas has found a way to crochet plastic bags into purses, makeup pouches, tote bags, and other carrying accessories. Anything you can crochet, you can make out of recycled plastic bags.
Trakas, along with her sisters and daughters, receives recycled bags from neighbors and friends, as well as from the stores themselves.
“It probably shows where people shop the most when almost all of the bags we are given are Walmart and Kroger,” Trakas said. “But Kroger bags come in so many different colors. It seems like every month they change the color of the bag so sometimes it’s hard to match.”
One of the fun things about these eco bags is that there is a ton of variety, Trakas said.
“Stores produce bags in so many colors that the possibilities are endless,” said Trakas, who specializes in scarlet and gray handbags for Buckeye football fans.
There are plenty of benefits using an eco bag over any other purse. One recycled handbag has the strength of 30-40 plastic bags. The bags are also waterproof and washable, so they can be used as fun beach bags in the summer time, produce bags for gardening or as a bag to put your wet muddy boots in the winter.
“There are so many different things you can do with the bags too,” Trakas said. “You can put a pocket on the inside, or different straps. My granddaughter even runs ribbons through the crochet.”
Trakas sells bags at craft fairs and shows, and she said that her most popular sale is the small makeup pouches.