Open Brainstorms
How can plastic grocery bags be creatively reduced, reused, or recycled?
These littering bags waste petroleum and aren't very biodegradable. How can they be minimized or utilized better? What are creative ways to reuse them? ALL CAN JOIN US HERE AT 4pm CST (21:00 GMT) ON WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 10 TO BRAINSTORM THIS LIVE!
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Brainstorm Info
| Creator: | djeich |
|---|---|
| Created: | 8 months ago |
| Activity: | 9 days ago |
| Users: | 23 |
| Ideas: | 200 |
Top Brainstormers
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200.
we have a kitchen area rug or throw rug made out of bags. Bought at green store
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199.
melt them down and turn this waste stream into a new raw material
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198.
They make great kites if you have kids
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197.
use them to make rain coats
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196.
Allow grocery chains to repurchase the used bags at a lesser price than they would pay for new plastic bags. In order to make this feasible a large quantity of bags would be needed for re-sale. Schools can collect these bags from students. Proceeds can go back to classrooms or school funding. Same concept applies to large offices promoting a "go green" campaign
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195.
Turn into bags for sandbags that can be used by local governments for citizens in case of flooding, etc.
| 2 votes |
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194.
Start a program at schools across the world to teach kids and teenagers they need to recycle plastic stuff like plastic bags and other stuff that needs to be recycled. This would get people at a young age into the habit to recycle stuff.
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193.
Collapse bags into cell phone sized pouch to easily bring to store. Really interesting MSNBC video report on paper vs. plastic: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23358591
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192.
Use them as bird scarers
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191.
the best thing to do is to urge supermarkets to make the bags in sizes so that it fits the small bins in each room like the one next to the study table. this will reduce cost of buying bin bags and also throwing rubbish every week.
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189.
In Bangalore, India old/waste plastic bags are used to lay roads. Links: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/08/16/stories/2006081620460400.htm
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188.
get one of those paper lamps from IKEA and glue lots of bags onto it. Looks amazing.
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187.
Collect them and make a messenger bag!!! they are cool look at this tutorial, (http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2007/08/making_messenger_bags_the.html)
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186.
The BBC news site recently had a debate about this subject: Should shops do more to reduce packaging? http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?forumID=3719&edition=1&ttl=20071024194047
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185.
Use them as garbage bags - that's what I do at home.
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184.
Shred them into tiny pieces so they can be used as fake snow in window displays
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183.
Put them under sheets to make a bed uncomfortable for an unwelcome visitor
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182.
recycle bags into crates then they can make the transportation of shopping easier and more economical.
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181.
This was an amazing live brainstorm session! We achieved most all of this in only 1-2 hours....with most the first half hour. Now click on the "good idea" button on the right to start rating the best ideas!
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180.
If you are feeling ill, place plastic loops around your ears and use the bag to catch anything that might not want to stay in your body.
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179.
Burn them instead of coal at the powerplant.
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178.
Promote the challenge "Name 100 uses for a plastic bag" as a standard creativity challenge in training and exercises. This way the people will be trying to solve the problem for years to come!
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177.
Put your shampoo, toothpaste, and shaving cream in them when you travel so that when the baggage handlers bang up your bag, it doesnt leak onto your clothes.
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176.
Select the best ideas from this brainstorm and publish them on the Global Ideas Bank to spread the message.
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175.
Print the contents of this brainstorm on all plastic bags to suggest ideas for uses and to promote the green message
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174.
Use them as planters for your houseplants - you could even use them for hanging plants using the handles.
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173.
Melt them down and make them into crates.
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172.
Put a can of soup in one, whirl it over your head, and see how far you can throw it. Challenge your friends!
| 1 vote |
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171.
Turn them into a universal weighlifting set. Put a few bags inside each other and fill with a big of rice, cans or soup, etc. and do arm curls.
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170.
Cut the bags into strips and hang from your window as blinds
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169.
Make all grocery store packaging be able to fit into square crates so you can easily move them to your trunk and into home without bags
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168.
(5 Google for information, inspiration, or ideas.) This Google image search (with search "plastic bags") produced this image: http://30gms.com/images/uploads/I_am_not_a_plastic_bad.jpg gives the idea: put advertising on plastic bags and use funds raised to concentrate on disposing of bags safely and spreading green message.
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167.
Use them to wrap Christmas presents.
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166.
Give a few of the bags to your sweetheart for Valentine's day.
| 1 vote |
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165.
Create an environmental olympics where the main event involves creative ways to reuse these bags.
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164.
Put one down your pants and walk around a bit to help you think of more ideas for this brainstorm.
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163.
Put them under your sofa cushions to make it softer.
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162.
Use them to make "summer snowmen."
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161.
Colour all plastic bags green so that if they are dumped they are not such an eyesore
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160.
What if we could seal oxygen or other gases into these plastic bags? Then when we need to use the gas, you can puncture the bag and put a "tap" pipe on it.
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159.
Charge $0.05 for each of them at the checkout.
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158.
Print flags on bags so that when the Olympics or World Cup is on you can attach them to your car and show your allegiance
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157.
Tie them to your car's attenna as a decoration. Or the bumper. Or to the seat on your bike.
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156.
Take photos of birds and animals trapped in discarded bags and show them in shops as a deterrent
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155.
Put your laptop in them when it is in your backpack and it is raining so it doesn't get wet from the moisture that seeps through.
| 1 vote |
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154.
Have huge signs outside shops telling people what to do with old plastic bags
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153.
Save up all you get for a year and then put them in Darin's mailbox as a prank.
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152.
Take them along when you go to the farmers' market and put your purchases in them.
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151.
Make blankets out of them for homeless people.
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150.
Why does a bag have to be bag shaped? Why not just have sheets of plastic that can be wrapped around the shopping? Then these sheets would have constructive uses - as garden covers or maybe shelters for the homeless.
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149.
Melt enough down to be able to make huge blocks that can be used as seats in parks and bus shelters
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148.
Have special and convenient parking spaces immediately outside shops: "only for customers who don't use plastic bags".
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147.
Grind them up to make confetti.
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146.
Make sculptures using plastic bags
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145.
Encourage baggers to stop putting things with handles into them (e.g. gallons of milk, 6-packs, bottles of detergent).
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144.
Wrap bags around apples on trees so that when the apples fall they are caught by the bag
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143.
Shops could have a rule: only three bags per person. Or, they could weight your shopping and a chart shows how many bags the person is allowed
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142.
Fill them with water and put them in your freezer to make huge ice cubes for your cooler.
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141.
Put useful advice on plastic bags - maybe about safety in the home, first aid or safe driving etc
| 1 vote |
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140.
Improve the ergonomic shape of products that would help people carry them just by hand, without the use of plastic bags.
| 1 vote |
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139.
Put list of suggestions on every bag: "100 things to do with this plastic bag"
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138.
Use it as gloves when working with grease and automobile parts
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137.
I had a dog that ate one, and it went right through him without causing any abnormal stoppage or anything. Maybe we could eat them to help curb appetite and lose weight.
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136.
Use it as gloves to do your dishes
| 2 votes |
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135.
Put 1,000 of them in your shirt and pants and sumo wrestle one another!!!!!!!!
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134.
make t-shirts out of plastic bags.
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133.
Use them as condoms.
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132.
Fill them with dirt and build levees out of them.
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131.
Create camping tents from plastic
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130.
Use it as a meditative tool. Slowly breathe in and out of it while focusing on something.
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129.
Use them as idea bags. Every time you get an idea throw it into your bag.
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128.
create a bicycle tire plastic bags that never get punctured.
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127.
Grind them up and use them as stuffing for stuffed animals.
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126.
Twist several bags together to form a "rope" and use as a chest expander
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125.
Have a local company that can disinfect them in mass and then distribute to local sellers of food and other products for their packaging.
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124.
Make all future bags clear plastic and clean so they can be used for food storage
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123.
Inhale and exhale into them to build lung capacity
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122.
Use them to take your lunch to school or work.
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121.
Stuff them in the mouths of dirty mouthed little kids instead of washing them with soap.
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120.
Create disposable gloves for doctors to use in hospitals
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119.
Blow them up, tie them shut, then slam it between your hands to make a loud popping noise.
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118.
Use plastic bags to make your shower cap!
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117.
Attach little army men to them like they are parachutes and throw them from high places
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116.
Get the space shuttle to dump bags in space
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115.
gotta go, have seminar. last idea, product integratable plastic bags so that a number of them can be somehow used together for more serious purpose other than shopping grocery
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114.
Put your feet in them before putting your socks on when you go sledding - keeps your feet dry!
| 1 vote |
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113.
Compress them into bullets for the cops to use when shooting rioters
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112.
Send bags beneath the earth's core so they are all melted and cannot pollute
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111.
To reduce...start issuing quotas on how many plastic bags a store can give out to customers.
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110.
train the store employee how to stuff things into as few bags as possible
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109.
print interesting news on paper bags so people wannt paper more
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108.
create sound proof rooms with plastic bags.
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107.
print free papers, like badger herold on plastic bags, so people with take care of them
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106.
organize clubs or organizations on campus to boost reduce plastic bags and reuse them
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105.
Put at the bottom of lockers in lockerrooms so that the bottoms don't get sandy and salty from the shoes.
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104.
Ask art galleries to arrange exhibitions that feature exhibits made only from plastic bags. Ask all the famous artists and sculpturers to make one exhibit each.
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103.
Have special lectures or sessions in student organizations about plastic recycle
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102.
Use to carry sweaty or wet clothes back from the gym
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101.
Stuff in glasses when traveling so the glasses don't break
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100.
Create an outdoor rug
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99.
Give the country a project: collect millions of bags, melt them and use them to make a gigantic statue that celebrates the country's identity
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98.
People who are just watching this brainstorm and have not added any ideas are encouraged to add ideas! My idea - Ask grocery stores to compile a list of ideas that shows benefits of using paper bags instead of plastic. Put this list everywhere in your shop
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97.
lower the quality of plastic bags to make ppl frastrated with the plastic ones and turn to paper
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96.
Every time you take a bottle for recycling you are asked to put it in a plastic bag
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95.
Create tents out of plastic bags.
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94.
What if we could use the plastic bags to protect the icebergs in the Arctic from melting? That would solve 2 of our problems.
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93.
Give groups of students or engineers a plastic bag challenge, to creatively develop a way to make them useful
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92.
Host the world's biggest plastic bag ball contest - make balls out of plastic bags...and auction them at the end for charity..
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91.
Buy one of those cheap bag holders with holes in it from Ikea to organize your supply of bags for reuse.
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90.
Use bags to cover plants when transporting them
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89.
sudoku on plastic bags.
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88.
add small collectors in car truncks specially for plastic bags for better bag collection
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87.
Start getting Hip hop stars/rap artists talking singing about not wasting plastic bags.
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86.
Melt bags and compress them into balls for children to play with
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85.
Film American Beauty like clips of a bag gracefully blowing in the wind (bag as supporting actor!)
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84.
Print games on the bags so that people will want to keep them
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83.
Create a facebook group and create awareness to recycle plastic bage
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82.
Print this on the plastic bag - "Please re-use me, dont throw me away when i'm still good"..or some other phrase that would urge ppl to re-use the bag.
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81.
make high-end purses or other "bags" from the bags
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80.
Don't know if this was said yet....weave the bags into - more bags! Use them for backpacks, reuseable grocery bags, etc.
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79.
Put them over your shoes on a muddy day
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78.
Have the local community provide you with an eco friendly bag to bring to stores when they give you your garbage/recycling program
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77.
Give annual tax breaks for returning plastic bags to the government
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76.
Devise machines that super-compress thousands of bags into a tiny space
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75.
hold "plastic bag collection" competition, the kids who got more bags win
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74.
Weave the bags into temporary belts that can be worn in a pinch
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73.
enforce the adverticement of the negtive effect on the enviorment from using plastic bags and encourage ppl to use paper bags
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72.
Use the bag as an imaginary pet
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71.
Grocery bags that are not torn or are in decent condition could be returned to the grocery store for say 1 cent per each good bag/ store credit for a certain number of bags...its a win-win situation for both the grocery store, and the customer.
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70.
Host a bag race to raise money for the earth, people race them.
| 2 votes |
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69.
Pass a law so that when bags are purchased, a percentage of the money goes into researching how to make bags biodegradable
| 2 votes |
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68.
Bags could be made into tires and later the tires into tires swings on playgrounds
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67.
use the wasted bags on the roof of the building for water proof
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66.
Start a company that takes the old bags, weaves them into bigger new bags, and brand them for grocery stores so they can sell them to their customers.
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65.
Create a drop-box for plastic bags outside grocery stores where the bags are collected again, cleaned/sterilized and then people going into the store could take a clean bag with them when they go shopping.
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64.
Give researchers at universities challenges on how to recycle the bags in new ways.
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63.
Find out how many bags the average person will waste in a lifetime. Create a big pile of bags and photo them to enforce the message.
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62.
Donate the bags and receive 10 cents each time you donate
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61.
Bags could be used in cushioins, doll/toy stuffings....
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60.
Compress the bags together and wind them tight to make a ball
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59.
make the plastic bags much biger, so the number of bags needed drops and the total material needed drops
| 1 vote |
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58.
We could collect all bags and simply give them back to the grocery store once a month.
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57.
Turn the bags into a raincoat or poncho.
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56.
create art out of plastic bags.
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55.
What if you were to create matresses that were stuffed with old bags?
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54.
Show YouTube videos of what happens in the "life of a grocery bag" that raises awareness of the harm these bags cause the earth.
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53.
Create a new form of art using the different shades of plastic covering as a different color for a portrait for instance.
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52.
shred the bags and use the pieces for thermal insulation for construction or sth