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Create Fused Plastic Bags

Do you have one zillion plastic drugstore and grocery bags under your sink, or perhaps smushed into a drawer? Fusing the bags together to make a workable material is a cheap and easy solution.

What You'll Need

• Plastic bags (thin, flimsy ones work best)
• Parchment paper, freezer paper or plain old copier paper
• Iron (and your favorite ironing surface)
  

Flatten out the bag and trim the bottom seam and handles off. This allows the bag to be opened up into a larger rectangle of plastic.

Turn the bag inside out if it has printing on it. Once the ink heats up, it comes off the bag and makes a huge mess. If the bag has an interesting design that you would like to preserve, try using a clear plastic bag layered on top of the printed one.

Usually, between 6-8 layers of plastic gives the best results. Therefore, you can either fold your bag twice until it is 8 ply thick, or use three or more bags layered on top of one another. Trying to fuse less than 6 layers often results in little holes forming in the finished piece and a generally weaker material.

Sandwich your plastic bags between the parchment papers.

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Upcycling plastic bags into other products keep them out of our landfills and oceans.