Volunteers from Salt Lake City charity organization Bags to Beds take thousands of used plastic grocery bags and crochet them into mats for people experiencing homelessness to sleep on.

CRESTVIEW — Not all people crochet sweaters or fuzzy socks. Some Northwest Florida residents use plastic bags to make sleeping mats for the homeless. Debbie Barberee organized a group of ...

Plastic bags are gathered from grocery or shopping stores, cut into strips that are tied together and rolled into balls and then crocheted into sleeping mats for the homeless.

While learning about different crochet techniques, she discovered you can cut up the bags and turn them into plastic yarn, or "plarn." "You tie the pieces of the bag together," Allred explained.

So if you have plastic bags, and you can crochet, you’re in. About 500 to 700 plastic bags go into each mat; they are lightweight and easy to roll up and carry.

MARYSVILLE - Inmates at Ohio's prison for women are making sleeping mats for homeless people using an all-too-familiar artifact of the modern world: plastic grocery bags.

Bags2Blankets volunteers create colorful 3-by-6 mats by crocheting plastic grocery bags that have been cut into strips. The mats can be folded in half and rolled up, and have a shoulder strap.

A single mat will cost you 700 grocery bags and countless hours of work. "We do this year-round! I mean, it's something we can do and we're able to do and it feels good to do it.

The crocheted mats are durable, lightweight and waterproof, and they provide some comfort. Houck Kampa had just finished writing a paper for school on plastic bags and how bad they are for the ...

In their spare time after working, more than 40 inmates are hauling bags of plastic strips and crocheting mats for the homeless. "I sit down and do this for four hours," said Walker.

Phyllis Shows (left), of Journey to the Streets Ministry, and Kathy Van Vlleet (right) crochet plastic bags into mats for the homeless as part the ministry located at the Empowerment House in ...