How to Recycle Grocery Store Bags

Sometimes grocery stores still ask if you prefer paper or plastic, but most will not ask for your preference. Some chains even offer to sell you a cloth grocery bag. For those who do not get the choice--or who do, but prefer plastic anyway--there are several ways to recycle plastic grocery bags.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. Use the bags to pick up dog waste while walking your dog. Depending on your dog’s diet, the waste is not a proper manure for lawns. Also, many people have children who play in the front yard, and do not want them stepping in your dog’s waste.

2. Wrap frozen goods in the bags. Instead of taking frozen meats out of the Styrofoam containers, put the entire container in the plastic bag and wrap it around the meat, so that you have at least two to three layers protecting the meat from freezer burn.

3. Line smaller trashcans (such as the cans in the bathroom) with the plastic grocery store bags. They are the perfect size, and you will not have to buy plastic bags for the smaller trashcans. Instead of throwing two bags away. the grocery store bag and the bag you bought to line the trashcan, you are only contributing one plastic bag to the landfill.

4. Recycle other plastics using the grocery store bags. Put the plastic bottles and jugs into the plastic bags and set them out for the recycling truck to pick them up. They are also plastic, so can be reused, just as the plastic bottles and jugs can be reused

5. Store newspapers and other paper products for recycling in the plastic bags. It makes it easier to carry them to the recycling center, and you can just dump them out when you get there and reuse the bags to store more paper goods.

Tips & Warnings

• Plastic grocery store bags can be used over and over many times before they break.
• If they get wet, or you need to rinse them out, rinse with warm water and hang them up to dry. When they dry, they are as good as new.