Saving the environment and reducing plastic waste, one 'plarn' bag at a time

Crocheting is not an unusual hobby, but Tonia Mercer adds a twist that makes her fibre arts stand out from most.

Mercer spends her days turning plastic yarn or plarn into crocheted reusable shopping bags. She flattens out plastic shopping bags, then cuts them into strips of plastic yarn that she crochets into circular shopping bags, complete with handles.

What began as an unusual waste-reduction method has now become her passion.

"I love it because it's something that feels like I am making some small impact in terms of taking care of a big problem, which is the single-use plastic bags," Mercer said.

Plastic bag passion

Mercer says she was once famous for half-finishing crochet projects, eventually pushing them aside.

All that ended with plarn.

"I felt so good about using something that was an alternative product," she said.

"It was taking a single-use bag and turning it into something that looks beautiful. And it also lasts for years and years."

Mercer said her work is even more impacfulat this time of year, as spring arrivesand she can see the plastic bags scattered across her community.

"You drive around the city now, as all the snow is melting, you're seeing a lot of single-use bags in the ditch or stuck on trees," she said.

"I'm quite happy to see them go."

Small change, massive impact

Mercer's environmentally friendly actions haven't stopped with her homemade shopping bags. Shealso rides her bike everywhere in Torbay, and she recently stopped eating meat.

"A lot of people think,'It's just me. What can I possibly do to make a difference?' If we think about it collectively and everybody does one small thing, it makes a massive impact," she said.

With a planned ban on plastic shopping bags coming in this province, Mercer saysshe has a plan in mind for a new yarn source,in case she runsout of single-use plastic bags.

• To ban or not to ban? Take a deep dive on plastic bags

"I'll switch gears then, and I'll start using all the T-shirts that end up going overseas and burned in the landfill over there," she said.

"I'll turn them into beautiful bags."

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