Spill the beans... on uses for old plastic carrier bags

jackieglasgow

Bags for life and cloth shoppers here, any plastic bags get used for pooper scooping.

bundance

colinthecockrel wrote: »

First of all I don't live in Wales, but thought I'd let you know what I do with all our rubbish:
When we had a new kitchen fitted a few years ago the bin arrangement was one of my priorities! We managed to find a set of 3 metal bins - one large (size of a household bucket) and 2 small (together, the size of a household bucket). The large one is used for all recycling - when full it is emptied into our green wheelie bin supplied by the council - no bags needed for this.
One of the small bins is used only for compostible waste - lined with a sheet of newspaper - when full, gets tipped into the compost bin outside.
The other small bin is for general waste which cannot be composted or recycled. We do not line this bin. It gets emptied every couple of days into the black biodegradable bin bag supplied by the council, given a quick wipe around with a cloth and spray of kitchen cleaner and is good to go again. If we have meat/fish waste, I try to re-use the packing the product came in in the first place to wrap it and put straight outside into the black bag. If I can't do this, then I'll use a bag which I have saved from something else, ie, bag of potatoes/bananas, etc, to wrap the waste in and put in the black bag.
On the carrier bag front, I try my hardest not to use them. I have 6 cloth/fabric bags which I take into town if I'm charity shop hunting/clothes shopping, etc, and always use these. As for grocery shopping I have 5 of the heavy duty SM reuseable bags stacked inside each other and get very cross with myself if I forget them!!

Mind you, this morning our village was flooded and I had to send the kids to school with spare uniform and school shoes in a carrier bag - took me a while to find 2 bags, so it's not always good not having them in the house!

Right, you can wake up now, sorry if I've bored you!

You didn't bore me.
On the contrary, you gave me some useful ideas.

Thanks

klint

I've just read the article on carrier bags in "Which?" Sept 2012, and realised we could be a bit misguided. Did you know that you need to reuse a cotton bag 131 times to make it less of an environment impact than a plastic carrier bag? This means it has to last two and a half years of regular weekly use. How likely is that? Also the magazine says "less than 1% of household waste comes from plastic carrier bags and their environmental impact is small compared to food and packaging waste." So, while I am concerned about the environment, I think I will put my efforts somewhere where it would make more difference - such as not wasting electricity reading forums about carrier bags.

flubberyzing

klint wrote: »

I've just read the article on carrier bags in "Which?" Sept 2012, and realised we could be a bit misguided. Did you know that you need to reuse a cotton bag 131 times to make it less of an environment impact than a plastic carrier bag? This means it has to last two and a half years of regular weekly use. How likely is that? Also the magazine says "less than 1% of household waste comes from plastic carrier bags and their environmental impact is small compared to food and packaging waste." So, while I am concerned about the environment, I think I will put my efforts somewhere where it would make more difference - such as not wasting electricity reading forums about carrier bags.

Okay then. So long. :cool:

redglass_2

bundance wrote: »

I wondered the same.
I came up with these.
If you have a garden you can compost.
If you have a dog or a goat they will eat any scraps as well as their own food.
Recycle all plastics, cardboard and glass.
That leaves the sloppy and disgusting rubbish.
We could put this in newspaper but what if we don't buy newspapers?

Unless I am missing something, without carrier bags, or \ny form of plastic bags we will have a sloppy smelly mess and a disgusting smelly bin.

I don't condone plastic bags, I just cannot see an alternative and I resent being put in a position where I am forced to use a product that is ultimately destroying the earth and the food chain, including human food, as we eat the fish that has been poisoned by this plastic.

This answer is going to be very unpopular, but in the past people managed without plastic bags. How? Well, they had lower expectations about everything being fragrant, for a start. (I can still remember my amazement at seeing things like 'scented bin liners' as I couldn't imagine anyone would waste money on such stupid things. How wrong I was...) Food shops handed out stuff in coarse white paper or newspaper. You put it in your basket or shopping bag (a huge great thing that lasted for years) and the paper was used for wrapping leftovers to go in the bin - but there weren't many leftovers because people were more careful about using stuff in soups and stews, mincing it up, etc. Cans that had held fish were sometimes burnt on the fire before putting in the bin, so that they didn't attract rats. Things were taken out to the outdoors bin pretty sharpish, not left indoors for days on end. The outside bins smelt. End of. It wasn't treated like a Greek tragedy. I don't want to be rude but to say you 'have no alternative' but to 'use a product that is ultimately destroying the earth' so as not to have a smelly bin suggests a very strange set of priorities. A smelly bin is just that, it's not Armageddon. Forty years ago nobody would have given it a second thought. I said this answer would be unpopular!

jenblackrod

We paved an area big enough for all four of the recycling bins in our back garden next to back door so everything gets re-cycled immediately to keep our tiny kitchen clear. Hubby rinses all four bins on day of collection each fortnight with power washer. Only takes a couple of mins and no smells, even in summer. I use Aldi canvas bags when shopping and have fold up bag bought years ago in handbag. If I do get any carriers mistakenly, put in re-cycling at Tesco, including sacks put through door from charities. Doesn't work if you've no garden or space for bins, if so you have my sympathy.

bundance

redglass wrote: »

This answer is going to be very unpopular, but in the past people managed without plastic bags. How? Well, they had lower expectations about everything being fragrant, for a start. (I can still remember my amazement at seeing things like 'scented bin liners' as I couldn't imagine anyone would waste money on such stupid things. How wrong I was...) Food shops handed out stuff in coarse white paper or newspaper. You put it in your basket or shopping bag (a huge great thing that lasted for years) and the paper was used for wrapping leftovers to go in the bin - but there weren't many leftovers because people were more careful about using stuff in soups and stews, mincing it up, etc. Cans that had held fish were sometimes burnt on the fire before putting in the bin, so that they didn't attract rats. Things were taken out to the outdoors bin pretty sharpish, not left indoors for days on end. The outside bins smelt. End of. It wasn't treated like a Greek tragedy. I don't want to be rude but to say you 'have no alternative' but to 'use a product that is ultimately destroying the earth' so as not to have a smelly bin suggests a very strange set of priorities. A smelly bin is just that, it's not Armageddon. Forty years ago nobody would have given it a second thought. I said this answer would be unpopular!

Thanks.
I have no objection to my rubbish outside being a bit smelly, but, unfortunately I live in a flat and have to share the bin-shed with others, one who complains about the smell.

rospax

bundance wrote: »

Is degradable the same as biodegradable?

A bag's degradable qualities are determined by the type of surfactant added to the plastic in manufacture. Biodegradable surfactants cause the plastic to degrade when buried in contact with biological organisms (such as in landfill). Photodegradable surfactants cause the plastic to degrade after exposure to light (so useful if, for example, a bag gets stuck up in a tree). Bags that break apart into little pieces after a period of normal use will have photodegradable qualities - presumably Tesco uses this type, as people have said they are not suitable for "knitting".

(I used to get plastic bags printed on a commercial basis, so learned about this topic in order to advise my clients. Some countries have laws about the type of surfactant that must be used.)

rospax

Hobsons_Choice wrote: »

As Saver0811 says, the Tesco carriers are most definitely bio degradable. I used a couple to cover the summer lounger in the garage and when I went to remove them I was faced with a pile of confetti

This actually means they must be photodegradable not biodegradable, ie. they begin to degrade from the moment they first come into contact with light. You will only notice this is happening however when they suddenly fall apart! If they were biodegradable they'd have to be in contact with bio-organisms - eg. be buried in landfill - in order to start to degrade.

silvergirl

Making a ball out of plastic bags as mentioned earlier.
I found it on cowfiles dot com which has load of ideas. I have many friends with children and I often look for ways of amusing the children when they visit. Making a ball like this would be a great idea. Cheap, cheerful and lots of useful conversation points. And most importantly, fun.