It may sound a bit Rumpelstiltskin-esque, but a host of volunteers from the city and suburbs are turning discarded plastic shopping bags into sleeping mats for the homeless.
A profile in the Chicago Reader describes how Ruth Werstler founded New Life for Old Bags, which organizes volunteers to crotchet plastic yard (aka “plarn”) into mats. So far, the group has made about 1,000 mats, which Werstler says has kept nearly 700,000 bags out of landfills.
You can find information about mat-making events in the city and suburbs on the group's Facebook page
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