Our last challenge was to shop with reusable bags. This is a terrific thing to do. But, it seems that the more people do this, the more sales of commercial trash bags go up. It seems many people used the plastic bags from the stores as trash bags. I know I did.
But it doesn’t make sense to prevent plastic use somewhere, only to use it somewhere else. That is why I am challenging you to not only go without bags from the store, but without commercial trash bags as well. I wouldn’t ask you to do this without testing it out myself, and you know what? It’s not so bad!
Even without taking bags from the store or buying commercial bags, I find I get bags everywhere. There are empty chip bags, bread bags, newspaper bags, frozen vegetable bags….bags everywhere! These are bags that used to be thought of as trash and would get stuffed inside a plastic garbage bag. That is just more plastic to be burned in the incinerator! Why not use these bags again for trash?
Granted, these are usually smaller bags, but since I recycle and compost almost all of the waste my family generates, I find that the leftover trash tends to be things like wrappers, random bits of junk, tissues, and things of the sort. These certainly fit into these empty product bags.
I keep a stash of these bags under the sink and when one is in use, I keep it next to the sink (since it is too small for a trash bin..which I don’t have). Using these small bags means they fill up faster- which is no problem, i just toss them in the large can outside- and it means I don’t have smelly trash in the house, and it saves space!
Of course I do keep a roll of commercial trash bags on hand for special events (or catastrophes, like cat puke or some other mishap), but – and I swear this to be the case- I am using the same roll that I bought for my daughter’s first birthday party 10 years ago.
So be courageous and see if you can go without the big kitchen trash bag. It has been done…here and all around the world. You can do this!
