its not green to throw carrier bags away, but what do you do?

Plasticfreemama

There are so many things you can do. If you reuse them you will stop accumulating them. You can use them to store things (christmas decorations and such) or give them to charity. But please don't throw them away!

sleepymans

We take reusable bags shopping and any plastic carrier bags that do somehow end up at home are either put in our food bank collection point (if the bags are perfectly clean) or put in the recycling bin in the supermarket.

We use newspaper to wrap kitchen waste and pop it straight in the dustbin outside. Our council prefers that as they say it helps combat rats, presumably because it’s less smelly.

We have also got a fantastic local Terracycle representative who runs loads schemes for stuff that either isn’t collected by our kerbside collection, or can raise a little cash for various good causes.

Others might like to check if there is a Terracycle point near them.

Plasticfreemama

I have actually been using a terracycle point recently! Feels good to avoid throwing certain things ina general rubbish bin. They have a directory of all their recycling points on the website, it's really good.

pile-o-stone

JKenH wrote: »

It was never plastic bags that were the problem - it was the people who use them.

Is that not the same defense as "Guns don't kill people, people kill people"?

PasturesNew

I always like to keep a few, but when enough is enough you could try offering them to charity shops, or putting them onto freecycle/facebook free stuff pages and advertising them for people who are going to do a car boot sale so they can offer bags to their customers.

Since the plastic bag charge I've found I've finally run out of plastic carrier bags. I started buying the ~40p 4ldi bags for life and they're bl00dy marvellous for all sorts of goods containment, carting/carrying, tidying/sorting jobs.

pile-o-stone

EricMears wrote: »

Alas, falling to pieces isn't quite the same as biodegrading; the hundreds of little pieces are still active pollutants rather than having been absorbed into soil.

I had to stop my missus putting these bags into our compost bins - she had believed the marketing that these were biodegradable. I am still pulling bits of green plastic out of my compost.

andrewf75

Keep enough for reusing, recycle any surplus ones at the supermarket if they can't go in your recycling bin.

Plasticfreemama

Oh no! I think the so-called greenwashing is a biG issue. They market these bags as "compostable" but they usually need specific facilities only available in industrial composting areas where they can break down efficiently. They certainly can't be added to home composts.

Cyclamen

Our Food bank asks for them.. especially the thicker ones.
A few of our shops (independent ones generally) will take them happily t reuse.
The red flimsy ones that come with tesco 'bagless delivery' are handed back to the driver or used as bin liners.

We give things away on 'trash nothing', leave plants on the front path as we grow to many, sell stuff locally etc and if we have bags we use them but often i have to ask the person to bring a bag/box as I haven't got any.

I'm not sure how you accumulate plastic bags now?

I have a lot of small fabric bags that squash up into a ball in pretty designs and colours and they get used by everyone.. I have a team of carers/pa's who all take the fabric bags home and return them.

Hexane

I don't think much of Ocado's lack of a "please deliver my shopping without any carrier bags" option (unlike Sainsbury's who do have such an option). However I do like very much their "give our driver our carrier bags or any other supermarket's carrier bags and we'll recycle them and give you 5p back for each one" policy. On my last Ocado delivery I gave them 44 carrier bags (mostly the crappy ones that Sainsbury's include for free because it's essential for whatever reasons) and was duly credited. Not sure how long this will be Ocado policy, but it's worth being aware of, especially if you've received one of those special offer vouchers through the door from them. (need to remember to have your carrier bags all ready...)