Crochet Ideas for Going Green

If you want to go green, crochet can be a great way to do it! There are all sorts of things you can crochet while helping the environment. You can crochet reusable items to replace things you would normally throw away. Also try turning everyday items like plastic bags, old t-shirts and more into yarn. By recycling materials and reusing your crocheted items, you can not only help the environment, but also save money!

Here are some ideas to get you started! Feel free to add your own ideas by leaving them in a comment.

1. Dishcloths
Stop using all those paper towels! Replace them with crocheted tea towels. Crocheted dish towels come in all sorts of styles and can be used for a variety of purposes, not just washing dishes. I personally love using them to wipe up spills.

2. Facial Cleaning Pads
If you use a lot of cotton balls or disposable cosmetic wipes, consider crocheting some. To reuse them, all you have to do is throw them in the washing machine with your clothes! Plus, they're so easy and quick to crochet, you might as well give them a try. 

3. Crochet Anything with Recycled Materials
Crochet decorative items, toys, blankets, hats, scarves, clothing ... just about anything. Don't limit yourself to crocheting with just regular yarn. Try crocheting with plarn (yarn made from plastic bags) or T-yarn (yarn made from old t-shirts). You don't need a special pattern to crochet with these materials. You can use regular crochet patterns (just remember to check your gauge).

4. Check Out the Crochet Patterns Online
Who needs paper these days when technology is involved? You can download the free PDF version of the patterns and carry them around on your laptop, phone, or even electronic readers!

5. Check out all the vegan yarn options.
Most of them are eco-friendly. These include corn silk yarn, recycled sari yarn, and reclaimed yarn.

6. Explore additional eco-friendly yarn options.
For example, there is alpaca/ Llama Eco-Soft Yarn and organic merino yarn. If the yarn is processed according to Organic Trade Association's Fiber Processing standards, it will be produced in an eco-friendly environment.

7. Crochet yourself a grocery tote (and other bags too).
This will prevent you from wasting the earth's resources on paper or plastic bags. If you get plastic bags, use them to crochet plarn items so they don't end up in landfills! Shopping bags, bread bags, large bags, small bags... any type of bag you can imagine can be crocheted and reused. The best thing about crocheted bags is that you don't need regular yarn to make them. In fact, the bags are stronger when made from non-traditional materials like plarn (plastic yarn). Try recycling plastic or other materials to crochet your bags.

8. Consider what other items you can make that are eco-friendly.
Choose items that are not traditionally green and make them with eco-friendly yarn so that they are green. Examples include crocheted teething rings for babies and crocheted toys, which are often traditionally made of plastic, but don't have to be.

9. Always hand wash your crocheted items and line dry them.
Your items will last longer this way anyway (and many types of yarn require this). Also, do something good for the earth by limiting the use of washers and dryers.

10. Recycle your crochet pieces.
Whenever you no longer need a crochet piece and want to get rid of it, make the effort to give it a second life by recycling it. The easiest way to do this is to cut it up and use the yarn for something else.

Do you have any other crochet ideas to add to the list? Share them by leaving a comment below!