I am all for recycling. Even though plastic bags are handy and convenient, they are ruining mother earth. What is your 2 cents on this?
It is not the plastic bags that are ruining the environment, it is the people. The plastic bags can be recycled, it is easy enough to just gather a bunch of them and take them into the stores-Walmart, grocery… they have containers just for them.
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It’s frustrating for a few reasons. I reuse them all the time- trash can liners, my boys grab them to carry stuff to school or dads, use them to hold wet things, etc. They are ALWAYS reused then recycled. Seriously, single use plastic bags aren’t the ones from the grocery store, they are the bags we use to line our kitchen trash. Now I’m purchasing bags, when I used to reuse the ones from the store.
I live in CT where they are banned or taxed, so now many people have a bunch of reusable bags that they don’t use because they keep forgetting them in the car. Its not just the grocery store, its the hardware stores and malls, etc, places you may not think to bring your bags in. People are throwing away reusable bags because they have too many.
There’s my 2 cents. And exactly what @redcatcec said!
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Some of the stores here in Maryland are paying you 5-10 cents/bag you bring in to reuse, no matter what kind of bag. It is an incentive.I am guilty of leaving the reusable plastic bags in the car, only to turn around and retrieve them. We are finally getting compostable bags for produce at select stores, which are not as sturdy so they are not as popular as the plastic ones. At work we have a Green Team (renew, reuse, recycle) team for the hospital, I suggested we go to compostable bags in the cafeteria, it was turned down because a few years back, they were not sturdy for transporting things like lunches. They could not support the task they were being used for.
I truly wish we had a deposit on cans, glass & plastic bottles, like some other states. The highways and neighborhoods are littered with these, just a one way use and discarded.
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People throw them away (not everyone recycles) and they end up in the fields and oceans. I use them to line our smaller trash cans and sometimes to carry stuff in. Just like Kelly said, reusable bags are forgotten at home or in the car (exactly what I do). I recycle plastic bags, but end up taking 3 bags full to the store to recycle. So they do just pile up and clutter my house until then. I’m not sure what can be done. I do know our local recycling places and pick ups won’t take them, so you have to be the one to get them back to the store. It’s easier just to throw them away.
You are right, the recycle places do not accept the plastic grocery store bags, please take them in to the stores or places that do.
The recycled bags are melted down to make composite lumber (with saw dust). They also are made into other plastic items, like door & window frames, decks, and play ground equipment. The plastic bags are not biodegradable and stay in the environment a long time, eventually releasing chemicals into the water and soil. They also find their way to the bodies of water and all over the land. They clog public drains and litter up the neighborhoods, marine animals also eat them thinking they are food.
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REDCATCEC,
Ugh, I have been reusing the plastic grocery bags to clean my cat’s litter box so the trash doesn’t get smelly. You can’t flush that stuff. It seems silly to recycle the grocery bags and buy small plastic bags to place the used cat litter into the trash. I do recycle when I get an abundance of them at the grocery store, but what to do about the cat litter so as not to stink up the house, but also not have those grocery bags in the landfills and where ever else they go. What to do?
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