Oleita, a 26-year-old environmentalist from Detroit, thinks she may have a partial solution for two problems: garbage and poverty. It’s called the Chip Bag Project. She is encouraging snack lovers to donate their ____1____ chip bags rather than throw them away, so she can turn them into sleeping bags for the homeless.
The idea came to Oleita two years ago when she came across a woman in England ____2____ viewers how to put chip bags together to make sleeping bags on Facebook. ____3____, she decided to use that video as a blueprint to start the Chip Bag Project.
Oleita and her volunteers get chip bags of all brands and sizes. After cleaning them in soapy hot water, they ____4____ them open, lay them flat and iron them together. They use the material from old coats to ____5____ the insides. Each sleeping bag requires 150 chip bags and takes around four hours to complete.
Since 2020, the project has ____6____ more than 800, 000 chip bags and, as of last December, created 110 sleeping bags. Sure, it would be simpler to ____7____ money to buy new sleeping bags. But that’s not enough. “We are committed to providing ____8____ for those in need, making an impact not only socially, but environmentally, ” Oleita says.
And, of course, there’s the symbolism of recycling bags that would ____9____ land in the trash and using them to help the homeless. It’s a powerful reminder that pollution and poverty often go hand in hand. As Oleita said, “I think it’s time to show ____10____ between all of these issues. ”