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West Valley group turns bags into beds

Dottie Scogna lines up a row in a nearly completed sleeping mat made out of plastic shopping bags.

Independent Newsmedia/Jason Stone

Diana Stolze works on cutting strips of a plastic bag to make a sleeping mat. It takes about 2,400 strips to make each mat.

Independent Newsmedia/Jason Stone

A completed 3-by-6-foot sleeping mat comes with a Bible, a pair of socks and a bag to hold it all.

Independent Newsmedia/Jason Stone

Stephanie Long flattens out a plastic bag to fold it, a step the group calls the most important in the process.

Independent Newsmedia/Jason Stone

Rita Anderson is responsible for sewing the bags to hold the sleeping mats.

Independent Newsmedia/Jason Stone

A carload of bagged sleeping mats finds its way to Peoria-based Billy’s Way Home, an outreach center for those homeless or struggling with addiction.

Courtesy Diana Stolze

The Center for Biological Diversity said the average American uses about 365 plastic shopping bags in a year, about one a day.

Environmental site The World Counts reported only 1% of those plastic bags are recycled.

And Earthday.org reported Americans simply throw away 100 billion bags annually.

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