Question about plastic bags

[W_HAMILTON]

I was watching MSNBC, and saw they were doing their "Green Is Universal" telecast, so I decided to check the site out. Of course it mentioned a few hints that everyone already knows about, including not using plastic bags when you go to the grocery store.

Well, I have a question. I usually do use the plastic bags, but we always recycle them (not by using them over again for personal use, but by sticking them in the recycle bags that the city picks up every week).

Is that still a "bad" thing? I know some super-green people will say even using them is just the most awful thing, but I'm wondering about a more honest answer, since I have never really delved much into how they are recycled. Do they just toss the plastic bags in a special "dump," meaning it still affects the environment? Or do they recycle them so that they will just be turned into new plastic bags for future use at grocery stores, or what?

[robinlynne]

1. Recycling them is far better than throwing them in the garbage. They will melt them

and make new plastic out of them. But, if you can hold on to your bags, leave them in your car, and reuse them, that would be even better.

[W_HAMILTON]

4. Oh ok, thank you

I was wondering about that. Of course it would be better not to use them at all, but recycling them is almost never mentioned when the subject is brought up, so I wasn't sure if it was even a viable way to help out a little bit by changing a little bit. Like I said, for all I knew they just tossed them into a special "dump" and let them rot there. But if they really do recycle them, at least it's helping out a little bit and not hurting the environment quite as much.

Thanks for the reply.

[mike_c]

2. ultimately, the only real solution is to stop using "disposable containers..."

...regardless of what they're made from. Take your own canvas bags to the grocery store whenever possible-- that effectively solves the problem.

[gateley]

3. I don't know the answer to your question but I'm interested to see if anybody

does.

In the meantime, check out the plastic bag counter at the top of this page. I was so horrified when I first saw it that I ordered a couple of regular fabric grocery bags, and several smaller ones to keep in my car for unplanned shopping.

Between these and the plastic bottle continents in the ocean, it scares me to death.

http://www.reusablebags.com/


Thanks for asking this question!!

[Richard D]

5. I have three plastic bags . . .

. . . the larger kind, that I've been using over and over for months when I go shopping. Months. Still probably have a few more months left in each one. I figure I've saved close to a hundred plastic bags just doing this.

It's kind of fun to write the date you first got them on the sides with a bold marking pen. Maybe hatch marks for each use, though I haven't done that. But people notice. Just a gorilla marketing technique I think is at least subliminally effective.

[bananas]

6. WorldWatch Institute has some good info

http://www.worldwatch.org/node/1499
Here's another alternative: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=115&topic_id=119643