JEFFERSON, Iowa — An enemy of every roadside, landfill, and recycling center in Iowa has become a welcome gift to homeless Iowans thanks to a charity in Jefferson.

The Midwest Mission, just off the town square, has found a way to give a new life to discarded plastic grocery bags.

“They’re going to be in a landfill or blowing across a field soon,” said Alaire Willits of the Midwest Mission. “We turn them into something useful.”

Willits and volunteers at the Mission use a large, homemade loom to weave the bags into durable, waterproof sleeping mats. The mats are then sent to homeless outreach organizations throughout the state.

“They’ll take as many as we can give them,” said Danille Curtis, the Mission’s public relations director. “They’re waterproof and only weigh about seven pounds.”

Nearly a thousand bags and 25 “man hours” go into each mat, but the result is a comfortable (and often colorful) pad that can be easily rolled up and carried.

When WHO 13 accompanied volunteers of the Urban Bicycle Food Ministry earlier this month, they handed out over 40 of the mats to homeless Iowans who’d otherwise be sleeping on the ground (often in frigid temperatures.)

While the work that goes into weaving each mat is extensive, Willits says Iowans have found a way to make it fun.

“What’s happening in many churches,” she said, “is the women will come in at 9 o’clock on Tuesday morning and sit and talk and weave and cut bags and talk and have some coffee—and they’re in mission. Their hands are engaged. And in many churches, this is older women. It’s something that they can do.”

The Mission takes the left-over plastic bag scraps and delivers them to the Winterset Lions Club, which has them made into park benches for the Covered Bridge Festival by outdoor furniture company, NexTrex.

While the Midwest Mission says its supply of grocery bags is currently full, it encourages everyone to recycle their clean, dry plastic grocery bags at recycling receptacles inside area grocery and hardware stores.