What do you do with your plastic bags?

[Copabanana]

In this we are twins. Hard to believe. You are so competent!!

I will look for the bag for my purse. Problem. I buy a lot. For two people I don't know how I buy so much food. And I eat sparingly.

 

[Lil]

We do about half our grocery shopping at Aldi's. If you haven't heard of them, they are a discount-type store. The food is all stocked in in their cases, like the cereal is in big boxes with the top and front cut out so you can see what's in it and they are all just stacked on top of each other. The flour/sugar etc., generally stacked on pallets, and the canned goods in the flat boxes. You bag your own groceries and they will sell you bags, I think it's 4 cents for paper and 10 for plastic - and the plastic is the big, reusable type - and $1 for cloth. So we do remember those when we shop there - usually. Sometimes we just grab a box out of one of the bins and stuff all the food in them. Sometimes I also take a handful of the other stores grocery bags and just leave them on the bagging counter for other people to use...just spreading the wealth. I get rid of a few that way.

The problem with plastic bags is the baggers at the stores give you SO MANY of them! I understand keeping the meat separate and the rat poison in a different bag than the sugar...but Jabber came home the other day having bought - literally, almond milk, Fiber 1 bars, coffee creamer, 5 bananas and two bath poofs. He had 4 bags! They put the bananas in a bag alone and the bath poofs in a bag alone! Really? Were the bath poofs going to squish or someone contaminate the bananas?

 

[AnnieO]

I agree that they use too many bags. I've been known to ask them to add items to bags... Many of the grocery store variety are too flimsy to use for anything else (Kroger and Walmart). Target used to have nice thick ones and we used those for re-lining bathroom cans. Now, they're thinner, but still better. Kitty litter - heck no, as most of them have holes by the time I get home. And I am gentle. We saved a huge amount for sister in law to make those mats but we see her so infrequently, it was a huge pile of a mess. (Mess of a pile, too.)

I have a bunch of the reusable ones, but I forget... Always.

Our recycling won't take them, so they end up in the trash. Sigh.

 

[BusynMember]

Lil I go to Aldi's and we buy the bags if we forget to bring our own so they have to bag them as we give them room. Half the time I forget to bring in the canvas bags sitting in my car's back seat!

 

[RN0441]

I use them to give leftovers to our older son! He comes at least once a week and we load him up on leftovers or a supply of stuff we buy at Costco - there's only two of us so we always have leftovers.

He will miss this when we move out of state later this year!

 

[Lil]

Many of the grocery store variety are too flimsy to use for anything else (Kroger and Walmart).

You know, that is a problem. The other day I remarked at Wal-Mart as I was checking out that I keep forgetting to bring my bags to recycle, and the checker said, "Oh God! Don't ever recycle them!" I asked why on earth not and she replied, "Why do you think our bags are so flimsy and useless? Those recycled bags are just junk!"

I don't know if that's true of if she just thought it was.

 

[GoingNorth]

I use re-usable canvas bags whenever possible, but I quite often order my groceries, etc. in when my arthritis is acting up. They, of course, come in plastic bags.

In the old days, they were great for dealing with litter pans. However, since I've switched to a silicon dust-free litter to spare two wheezy cats' lungs, I scoop much less (the litter dehydrates "things"), and I'm beginning to find myself inundated in bags.

Since our apartment building has no-sort recycling bins, I've been putting them out with the rest of the recycling, but I have no idea if they're actually being recycled.

I checked to see if the two grocery services I use had the option of using paper bags, but they only use plastic. At least with the paper I'd KNOW they were recyclable.

 

[Billiesue]

I wrap holiday items with them

 

[svengandhi]

I use them to collect lint from the dryer. When H and the boys used to camp regularly, I would give them bags of lint to use a fire starters.

I also give some to mother in law for her garbage. One of my sons has a small garbage can in his room and he uses some. Other than that, we use 50 gallon garbage cans in the house.

I put my shoes in them when I carry a pair in my bag.

I have way too many of them but I don't want to throw them out because they make garbage.

Is there really a thing to donate them to make sleeping bags for the homeless? I would so send them my bags.