Can You Really Make A DIY Bird's Nest From A Mesh Produce Bag?

Produce packaging has evolved from wholesale crates to single-use plastics to more environmentally friendly solutions, with mesh bags being a sturdy option to house produce like potatoes and onions. Mesh is a favorite material for produce bags because it allows easy airflow, leading to less decay — though the contents are more susceptible to rough handling and airborne contaminants. However, polyethylene plastic mesh can still have long-term environmental costs if discarded haphazardly, both for catching sea life and trailing microplastics. It's best to recycle or reuse it wherever possible, and mesh produce bags are great for DIY projects like a make-your-own bird's nest.

For birds to visit your backyard, they'll need sources of food, water, and shelter. Good shelter typically involves a variety of plants that provide a safe place to sleep, and protection from the elements: high heat, snowy cold, and rain alike, depending on where you live. Nest boxes offer a solid place to rest and lay eggs for migratory birds coming back during spring, but hanging a mesh produce bag full of insulated padding is a less costly way to reuse household items for a simple birdhouse. You may hear about leftover dryer lint being a cheap and popular soft padding material for DIY nests, but it can come with a host of problems: Lint will quickly disintegrate when wet and may still carry harmful chemicals from the detergent and fabric softener you use in the wash. Instead, you'll want to lean on natural fibers such as fabric, yarn, twine, raw wool, or cotton — not to mention the kind of natural debris you might actually find out on the forest floor.

The design of a bird's nest using a mesh produce bag could take multiple forms, especially if you want to include something like a camera in your DIY birdhouse for the sake of more intimate birdwatching. Just cutting open one side of the mesh, where you'd naturally be removing produce like potatoes or oranges from the bag, makes it the perfect shape to match an outdoor egg chair that you can tie to a tree branch. Alternatively, you can cut the mesh into one flat sheet and then roll it into a cylindrical shape, tied up at one end either with the twine you're using to hang it or some clamps (though this idea would hold its shape better with more rigid materials like chicken wire). 

When filling out that makeshift bird's nest, as mentioned, there's a lot of value you can derive out of raw fabrics; you just want to be careful, as birds — like many other wild animals — are already suffering from an overconsumption of microfiber plastics. If you want to lay out a nest-building bundle of safer materials for your bird visitors, use small twigs, dry grass, and pine needles to fill out the bulk of your DIY bird's nest. Even if birds might not use the mesh produce bag as a shelter, they could still take these raw materials and create their own nest nearby. Consider adding some colorful ribbons to your nesting material to potentially track which birds have taken from your stash, as colorful DIYs can attract more birds to your backyard space.