Recycling

[HONDO74]

With some states and several cities banning single use plastic bags, how many here Recycle them if you get them.

When I get them they usually come from my local market or Walmart. Grocery bags. The Walmart has a big bin for return of the used bags. I just use one of the bags to put the rest of them in and when I get 2 bags full I return them to the Walmart.

Some people use these bags as trash bags. We used to do that. I read a survey report the other day that cities where they have been banned, the sales of small plastic trash bags has increased dramatically.

Do you think they will also ban the plastic trash bags in the future

[v8vega]

I knew Los Angeles was going to outlaw them so I saved a bunch before the ban. Now I do use a few but not as much as I thought.

[NJPiney]

I haven't started using reusable bags yet, but do bring the plastic ones back to store for recycling, as well as finding other uses for them around the house, such as lining wastepaper baskets and such with them rather than buying new ones. A few municipalities around here have banned them and some people squeal like stuck pigs at the dreaded inconvenience.

Dealing with waste at its source works better than hoping for voluntary recycling compliance. Some people are lazy and others will not do it merely because they consider recycling an "environmental" activity, which in their minds must mean it's a liberal one. I've actually heard statements to that effect made. I've seen maintenance staff at the organization I work for regularly empty recycling containers into the trash, because they thought it was a waste of time and were not going to be told what to do by "college boys". That attitude is stupid, of course. How does burying plastics in the ground, to sit there for thousands of years, make any sense, no matter which party you belong to. The human population is constantly growing and they haven't made the Earth any bigger that I've noticed. Some people just don't have the intellect to think more than 30 minutes ahead.

[rex desilets]

All true.
Also true is that many entities dump recyclables into land fill because the Chines don't want our stuff any more.
Speaking of which, when plastic bags were available the homeless would crap into them. Now, they just crap on the sidewalk.
Unexpected consequences...

[NJPiney]

All true.
Also true is that many entities dump recyclables into land fill because the Chines don't want our stuff any more.
Speaking of which, when plastic bags were available the homeless would crap into them. Now, they just crap on the sidewalk.
Unexpected consequences...

Yeah, those damn consequences. When I worked for an environmental consultant years ago we would often be searching a site for endangered corn or threatened northern pine snakes. To save time, the first thing we did was check piles of illegally dumped tires or contractor debris along wooded roads. If the snakes where within the tract, those piles were a likely place for them to find cover. So, is illegal dumping a good thing? I think not, but then the real world exists within shades of gray rather than black and white.

[rogruth]

Hondo's opening post mentions the use of plastic garbage bags.
What is being used for garbage disposal?

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Do you think they will also ban the plastic trash bags in the future

Not for some time. These are not everywhere and actually get picked up and disposed of, and in nowhere near the numbers per bag as grocery bags. They are actually useful in a health related level to contain garbage.

The grocery store bags will die out soon. Whatever will we do? Whatever did we use before? Oh, wait - paper bags. Something actually useful repeatedly. Only drawback I'm seeing to these being eliminated is that whoever makes them will just end up making something else and has probably already made that transition. Grocery bags end up everywhere except the garbage and trash, and then in a land fill for eternity. Total waste of resources.

I keep all of the paper bags that I get at the stores that use them - and then I use them over and over, until they fail and then they go into the fireplace or into the paper recycling bag, which is paper.

[rogruth]

There is no place in our town that recycles plastic grocery bags so they go with the garbage.

We can recycle paper, cardboard, cans and some types of plastic.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

There is no place in our town that recycles plastic grocery bags so they go with the garbage.

Same

We can recycle paper, cardboard, cans and some types of plastic.

And same again.