Plastic Bags

When asked the question “Paper or plastic?”. . .why not bring your own reusable cloth shopping bags instead. Using a reusable cloth bag when going shopping at any store will help divert tons of unnecessary paper and plastic bags produced and disposed of everyday in landfills. Cloth bags also hold a lot more, so there are fewer trips back and forth from the car and the cloth carrying handles are more comfortable on your hands than paper or plastic handles. You can also reuse the thin plastic bags available in the produce section, or skip them altogether if you bring your own reusable cotton mesh produce sacks. Some stores even give a small discount when you bring reusable cloth bags or reuse old shopping bags to carry out your new purchases.

If you buy just one or two items, try going without a bag altogether. The store pays for its bags, which means so do you, and in the end, so does the environment. And don’t forget to recycle your old plastic bags. Most grocery stores are required to have a bin for recycling clean plastic bags. Any type of clean thin film plastic or plastic bags (no stickers or food residue) can be recycled in these bins.

Many dry cleaners will also take back their plastic clothes bags. When you get home and hang up your clothes, keep the plastic covers and recycle them on your next trip to the dry cleaners – rather than throw them away. Some stores will also reuse clean hangers.