Chicagoist: Ask Chicagoist: Recycle Plastic Grocery Bags?

kenholmes

Tue, 20 May 2008 11:52:56 -0600

I live in Seattle, where I moved 20 years ago, which has an excellent recycling program. I am constantly surprised by the number of large cities that are just starting a recycling program. No wonder trash is littering your streets. Don't blame the plastic bag for the litter, blame the government for not providing good recycling and work to improve that. Work to educate the public about environmental issues and how to properly dispose of waste. Plastic bags aren't the problem, people are the problem. Banning bags is at most a band-aid solution that really does nothing to solve the problem of litter. Most bag bans and taxes just don't work. Ireland imposed a tax on grocery bags just to see sales of packaged plastic bags go up 400% - look it up. And paper bags are far worse for the environment than plastic. Don't believe me? Do a little research... heck do a search for "paper vs. plastic" right now, see what it says.

chloe_pb

Thu, 15 May 2008 16:20:37 -0600

You could always find other uses for them. If you google "plastic bag crochet" you'll find tons of patterns and ideas for turning the bags into reusable tote bags, mats ... lots of things! My church is actually working on a project to turn them into portable sleeping mats for the homeless. They're durable, lightweight and give more padding than cardboard. I definitely think there are better ways to transport our goods than plastic bags, but until they all go away we can find different ways to use them!

widdlytinks

Thu, 15 May 2008 15:38:01 -0600

Plastic bags when recycled are bad, and paper bags are not really good either. Sure, trees are a renewable resource, but the production of paper is at the cost of fossil fuels as well. Reusable bags can be just about anything, and if you hit up Village Discount or the Brown Elephant, you can find a bag for groceries pretty easily. It's not that hard, and it does a lot of good. Thanks for this article, because I think the fact the bags are recyclable material is confusing. Just because something can be recycled doesn't always make it eco-friendly.

Tower18

Thu, 15 May 2008 14:59:14 -0600

Or just use paper bags? I get my groceries in paper bags, and then use the paper bags to hold my garbage. Is it recycling? No, but at least it's paper. Plus, you'd pretty much never catch some loser at Jewel putting one small item by itself in a paper bag.