The Cycle Of Repurposing

The process of repurposing involves using a product to serve another purpose. For example, soft plastic bags can be repurposed into sleeping mats.  

Mary Worby is one such woman in Mackay that started making sleeping mats from plastic bags three years ago.  Her journey began four years ago after seeing on Facebook school children in America making sleeping mats for the homeless out of bread bags.  Mary googled a pattern and started using the grey plastic shopping bags.  When recycled plastic bags came into supermarkets, and the grey bags were banned, Mary started using garbage bags.  

In a personal touch, Mary always labels her mats “Made by Worbs”.

Mary collects the soft plastic bags from Op Shops in Mackay then cuts the bags to make ‘plarn’ for crocheting.  ‘Plarn’ is plastic yarn.

It takes Mary around a week to crochet a mat.   With the housing affordability crisis in Mackay, these mats are distributed through the homeless support agencies in town to provide some relief for when other housing options are not available.

Volunteers at the North Wall, Mackay Harbour when doing the “Clean Up Mackay Region” event on 20th August collected a sleeping mat that was in an abandoned rough sleeper’s dwelling found in the beach reserve.

Bessie Hayes, Assistant State Lead, Share the Dignity, was one of the volunteers at the clean-up event and was intrigued with the construction of the mat.  The re-purposing of what otherwise would have ended up in landfill, or worse, in our beautiful oceans sparked Bessie onto finding out more about these mats.

Being intrigued with this re-use of plastic bags, Bessie joined the “Plarn Project” at the Dudley Denny City Library where the public is welcomed to come and contribute to making a sleeping mat.  The Plarn Project is free and aims to bring some comfort to our rough sleepers.  No experience is necessary and all crocheters are welcome.  

Bruce Thompson, Resource Recovery Education Officer at the Mackay Regional Council salvaged the mat from the clean-up.  “Despite the fact it was crocheted from plastic bags, it was still in good condition and re-usable,” he said.

“So after washing the mat down and letting it air, the mat was returned to Robyn Billings in our office.  Robyn is a ‘plarner’ who volunteers with Orange Sky.”

With the mat in hand, Robyn tracked down its maker, aka “Worbs” to let her know that the mats were being used for the purpose intended.  In discussing the mat find, Mary commented that she hadn’t used that style of name tag for over two years!

The great news is that the mat was made in 2021 so two years later, it’s still okay to be used and is now back in circulation giving another Mackay rough sleeper some comfort and protection from the cold damp ground.

The mat is part of the story Bruce tells, namely that even though plastic has the capacity to be an environmental menace, it can also be a resource if used correctly.  

Bruce uses the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson, ‘What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.'

‍

‍

Mary Worbly with her 2021 mat that was salvaged in a 2023 clean-up event

Bessie Hayes went from mat finder to mat maker at the Dudley Denny City Library

‍