Plastic bag bans are on the rise. Single-use plastic bag re-users take heart. It is possible to live sans single-use plastic bags without buying kitchen garbage can liners or pet waste bags. This post will show you how.
When Sten Gustaf Thulin’s one-piece “t-shirt” plastic shopping bag idea was patented in 1965, perhaps he thought it would provide retailers with a strong, lighter weight and lower cost alternative to paper shopping bags. And it did. Fast forward several decades. The “t-shirt” bag has morphed into the single-use plastic bag, a bane to municipalities, recyclers, and our planet.
Single-use plastic bags are lightweight and prone to flight. They end up as litter along roads and highways, clog storm drains, pollute waterways, wash up on beaches, and harm wildlife. Increasingly, municipalities, counties, and even states faced with staffing restrictions and tight budgets are getting fed up with single-use plastic bag waste and are passing bag bans.
The Plastic State of Mind video below explains the issue with music and humor. Check it out.
In addition to opposition from plastic bag makers, bag ban proposals sometimes generate complaints and heated exchanges from the general public. Shoppers used to free plastic bags at the store don’t want to pay for plastic bags to line their kitchen garbage cans or to pick up and dispose of pet waste.
What is a single-use plastic bag re-user to do? An easy, no-cost solution already exists in your home.
Packaging Galore
It seems as if almost everything we buy at a grocery market, retail store, or online comes in some kind of packaging, perhaps multiple layers. The products we purchase offer a treasure trove of containers, boxes, jars, bottles, bags, tubs, sacks, wrappings, pouches, and cartons.
Sometimes the packaging is removed and discarded before we use a product, like a toilet paper multi-roll pack, 6-packs of socks, or anything in one of those impossible-to-open plastic containers popular for electronics. In other cases, the packaging is used to store the product during use and then discarded, like a breakfast cereal container.
Depending on if one recycles or not, some packaging is recycled and the rest is tossed in the trash and later ends up in a landfill. A not insignificant amount of resources and energy go into to making all this packaging and some of it can be repurposed or reused at least 
once. Most people probably already practice at least some packaging reuse. For instance, by reusing a mayonnaise jar to store grease drippings, putting leftovers in a sour cream container, or taking a sandwich to school or work in a bread bag.
With a few reusable shopping bags and the packaging from the products we already purchase, we can eliminate the need for single-use plastic bags.
One Week Packaging Experiment
Try the following packaging experiment for one week, two for small households.
- Repurpose a cardboard box, plastic crate, or laundry basket for use as a packaging collection box.
- Place the collection box in a convenient and visible location such as the kitchen pantry, laundry room, or garage.
For the next week or two, place all packaging and empty containers (except that contained raw meat) into the collection box. Even stuff you would normally put in the recycle bin. Dump out crumbs and rinse out packages if needed. Don’t forget packaging from non-food items and things that are delivered to your home. Add another collection box if necessary. You will probably be amazed at how much packaging you collect.- Next, go through your collection and think of ways the various containers and packaging can be repurposed or reused at least one time, like to dispose of the messy kitchen or pet waste.
- Decide which kind of packaging you can and will repurpose and reuse and make this part of your normal household routine. It takes about 3 weeks to create a new habit so within a month you will no longer need single-use bags for the kitchen garbage can liners or pet waste disposal.
The Bag Ban Comes to Your Town
Imagine the bag ban has come to your town. You have just emptied your kitchen garbage into the trash collection receptacle and said goodbye to the final single-use plastic bag from your stash. You picture pork chop bones, leftover takeout, and banana peels being tossed into your naked kitchen garbage can. Yuk.
You grudgingly grab your wallet or purse and pick up the car keys to head for the store where you’ll purchase your first box of plastic kitchen garbage can liners. As you step into the garage, you spot the box containing the results from your packaging experiment. A pizza box calls out to be filled with vegetable peelings, a frozen pea bag begs for greasy paper towels, and a cereal box liner clamors for chicken bones. You pause and realize you already have the means at hand to keep your kitchen garbage can yuk-free without single-use plastic bags or putting out any extra cash.
You smile and walk to the park.
Related Posts
- Bags – Paper, Plastic, or Reusable?
- Bags – Paper vs. Plastic: Reuse, Recycle, Compost, or Toss?
- Bags – Then Came Plastic
- Kitchen Trash Bags – Green Alternatives
