My primary inspiration for this project was the experiment we did we the decomposable green plastic bag. For the experiment, we knitted plastic bag and this was very interesting to me because it never occurred to me that we could knit plastic bags. I personally like knitting and I thought that by knitting the plastic, it would make the bag strong enough to carry 2 liters of water.
I wanted to keep the design simple so that the knitting pattern would stand out.
I came up with the basic design as soon as I got this project paper.
The bag is 9-inch length, 5-inch width, and a 15-inch height.
I personally use a lot of small semi-transparent plastic bags and my dorm is also flooding with plastic bags, so I decided to use plastic bags as the main materials. During our experiment with the decomposable plastic bag, I knitted a square and then stretched it out to check how firm it was. Even when it was very thin and weak plastic, when knitted it became quite firm.
This is the semi-transparent plastic that I frequently use but never reuse. This part is the handle for the bag.
The red plastic bag is also the handle. This plastic bag was my roommate’s. And the combination of silver and white is the bottom part of the bag. The silver bag is from best buy and the white plastic bags are plastic bags running around in my dorm.
This part is the main body part of the bag. This was 12 inches by 28 inches… I seriously wanted to cry while knitting this. It took around 2 hours to knit 12inches by 2.5 inches and I regretted knitting. I never realized that knitting plastic would be this hard. because of the fraction the plastic creates, it was hard to move fast. Also, I was also worried that if I knitted the bag loosely it would not be as firm as I hoped. But I already started knitting and it was too late to give up.
This is my final upcycled bag, I attached the parts together with the strap part of the big plastic trash bag. I wanted to try to make the bag 99.9% plastic and it turned out to look okay.
The overall experience of this project was quite interesting. Because I was knitting the bag everywhere I went (mainly because it took so long and I had no time…) many people complimented that the knitting looked great and they would actually wear this or carry the bag. And unlike what I anticipated it to be, the bag was frim and cool. I would definitely use this bag for various purposes and knitting could be an alternative to garments in terms of sustainability. A lot of indisposable plastics are going to waste and by reusing them we are able to create something completely different. I think I might continue knitting plastic bags.
