Have some produce nets that you wonder how you can recycle them? Want to reuse them in a handy and useful way? Well how about crocheting them in a useful scrubber pad.

Here are two scrubbies I crocheted using the plastic produce nets that lettuce and other veggies come in from your grocery store. Most of my produce nets are green but I have been given red, yellow, and orange colored ones from friends. The nice thing about using the recycled nets is that you don’t need but just a few to crochet a nice kitchen scrubbing pad. I crochet the nets along with cotton yarn to make a soft but firm textured surface.

You can use these scrubbers in the sink and bath tub without fear of scratching the surfaces. They also can be used on Teflon pans that have non-stick coatings as they are soft enough to not scratch the coated surfaces.

Depending on the size of scrubber pads you desire, at most you need 3 to 4 nets cut into strands for the larger scrubber shown. You join the strands together as shown in my produce net-cutting tutorial to create a recycled netting “yarn.” You then crochet the scrubbers using the netting yarn held together along with a strand of regular cotton yarn to make the scrubbies.

Okay got you hooked? Pun intend – so grab a crochet hook and check out the basic diagonal pattern below.

Diagonal Scrubber with Recycled Produce Nets

Hook: J (6 mm) crochet hook

Materials: Plastic produce nets and less than an ounce of cotton yarn

Assemble your strands of cut produce netting as shown in the tutorial link above. Holding a strand of produce netting along with the cotton yarn, chain 14 for a 3 inch scrubber square or chain 19 for a 4 inch square.

I had only one red produce net so I crocheted the little red and white scrubbie by only crocheting with the red plastic yarn every other row.

Round 1
Sc (single crochet) in each stitch of chain down to the end, work 2 Sc in end stitch and then around the back side of chain, work Sc in each stitch back to where you began. End round by working another Sc in last stitch.

Round 2
Don’t turn but work in the round with a Sc in each Back Loop Only (BLO) around.

Round 3+
Continue working in the round with a Sc in each BLO until the corners curl up and the seams come together in the middle.

For a different look you can also turn the scrubber inside out before closing the seam.

Leave a long tail and stitch closed the seam by going through the back loop on one side and both loops on the other side to keep your stitch pattern the same for the sewn seam.

Just tuck inside the end of the plastic netting along with the cotton yarn to finish off the scrubbers.