alternative to plastic bin liners

ZIZA

I am really trying hard to remember to take a cloth bag with me when I go shopping but the thing is before I would use the plastic bags as bin liners. If I were to buy plastic bin liners I am defeating the object of not using plastic bags.
What do other people use? I would be interested to know.

Pink.

Hi Ziza,

Even though I use reusable bags when I'm shopping, we still manage to gather enough plastic bags to use as bin liners.

I'll move your thread over to the Green and Ethical board to see if you can get some help there.

Pink

Softstuff

I take the cloth bags most of the time, but there are still times I forget (fortunately), so that's when I get my bin liner carriers.

Some people just literally throw rubbish straight in the removable container of the bin. But then you have to wash it out well each time.

looby-loo_2

I'm finding that if I put everything I can on the compost heap and then recycle everything else I can, that I only have about one carrier bag of dustbin rubbish every week, so two bags every fortnightly collection.

I'm tying so hard not to collect plastic bags that I didn't have enough to take with me when I did a car boot last weekend.

Linda32

Hi, Its an ongoing problem isn't it.

I'd love to stop buying bin bags, for environmental reasons and money saving.

This is what I do now, I bought 4-5 bags for life and keep them on the front passenger seat of the car, so with abit of luck I remember.

As for throwing things in the bin, just a few days ago I decided to try not to put big things in the bin but to take them straight out to the dustbin. Punnets and butter/spread tubs for instance. That way at least you don't fill up the bin quite so quickly.

I also use the big bags which loo roll comes in as a bin bag.

ZIZA

hi
Thanks for all your ideas. I shall try them all and see how it goes.
I think I might try to put some newspaper in the bottom of the bin at least that way it wont be quite so mucky to clean.

ZIZA

arkonite_babe

If you do want to use a plastic bag in the bin, tesco are doing compostable bin liners now. They are made from vegetable matter. It says on the packaging that they are suitable for home composting. IIRC the small ones are about £3 for a roll of 30 and they will fit a small waste paper type bin, they also have a larger size but I don't remember how much they are or what the size is.

HTH

SnowyOwl_2

It might be worth having a bin with a liner specially for icky things so that you can tie that up and put it straight into the outside bin. The rest of your rubbish would then be dry, so it would be feasible to put it straight into an unlined bin. It's also possible to empty lined but dry bins straight into the outside bin without removing the liner - just keep going until it falls to bits. (I nabbed that idea from the cleaner at my last job).