Here in the U.S. alone, we use around 100 billion plastic grocery bags every single year. While some cities have banned the bag, most of us aren’t lucky enough to live in a town that’s nixed those ubiquitous, flimsy grocery bags.
Here are some practical and crafty ways to use those bags over and over, and you can share your favorite ways to reuse plastic bags in the comments!
1. Dirty Clothes – Stick a plastic grocery bag into your suitcase to tote home your dirty clothes while you’re on vacation. It’s nice to be able to separate your clean clothes from dirty ones, and this lets you do it without taking the plastic bag that most hotels provide.
2. Make Plarn – You can cut those bags up and make yourself a ball of plastic yarn for use in all sorts of knit and crochet projects. How cool would it be to upcycle a flimsy plastic bag into a well-made, crocheted one?
3. Fuse It - You can use your iron to turn those plastic bags into durable fabrics.
4. Scoop the Litter Box – Flushing cat liter is a bit controversial, since cat waste contains toxins that’s harmful to aquatic life, and unfortunately, scooping is a fact of life for cat owners. You’ve got to put that smelly litter somewhere. You’re probably using a plastic bag already, so you may as well RE-use one instead.
5. In the Glove Box – If you or someone in your family is prone to car sickness, you can keep a plastic grocery bag in the glove box, just in case you’re not able to pull over in time to avert disaster.
6. At Concerts – Amphitheater shows and multi-day music festivals come with a lot of waste, and the trash and recycle bins seem to always overflow by the end. Instead of piling your empties on top of an overflowing bin, use a plastic grocery bag to take your recyclables home at the end of the show.
7. Dog Waste – It’s only polite to pick up after your pet, and many areas even provide disposal areas for dog waste. Rather than grabbing the plastic bag provided, you can re-use a plastic bag that made its way into your house.
8. Use Them Again – It may not be as fancy as pulling out a canvas grocery tote, but if you’ve got a bunch of those plastic bags around the house, bring them to the store to tote another load of groceries home.
9. Line a Paint Tray – Next time you’re painting a room, use a plastic bag to line the paint pan, rather than a disposable plastic pan liner. It takes less plastic, and it’s reuse to boot!
10. Protecting Valuables – Whether you’re packing to move or storing breakables in the attic, you can wrap them up in plastic bags to cushion them against damage.
11. Protect Your Paint Brushes – If you’re taking a break from painting, you can wrap the brush in a plastic bag to keep it from getting dry and hard. Just stick the wrapped up brushes into the fridge until you’re ready to get back to it.
12. Small Trash Can Liners – Reuse a plastic bag to line small trash cans, like in the bathroom, instead of buying new plastic can liners.
13. Save Energy – Instead of sand, you can stuff a draft dodger with plastic bags.
14. Donate Them – Places like libraries and food banks often need bags.
15. Protect Plants from Frost – Protect your plants from a freeze by wrapping them securely in a plastic bag overnight and removing the bag in the morning.
16. In Your Suitcase – When you’re packing for a trip, stash your shoes in a plastic bag, so they don’t dirty up your clothing.
17. Shipping – If you’re mailing something fragile, wrap it in plastic bags instead of new bubble wrap.
18. Gardening – Tie a couple of plastic bags around your knees to add some padding while you’re working in the garden.
Like some other links I find that are worthy to share, I felt this article written by Becky Striepe found at Care2 had green tips that needed to be shared in full instead of just a link.
"most of us aren’t lucky enough to live in a town that’s nixed those ubiquitous, flimsy grocery bags"
ReplyDeleteThose bags actually save us a lot of money. At our apartment we are required to use garbage bags. So instead of spending more money buying bags, we can use these "useless" grocery bags to actually save money. Just something to think about...
When I forget my reusable bags and have too much to just have the bagger place the groceries back in another buggy, I either reuse the grocery bags to place in our garbage cans too, drop them back off at stores that offer that option, and/or share some at our local rummage sales. When I owned MBG, I would also use them as packaging material.
ReplyDeleteA student of mine fused plastic bags together and made a background out of them for other media to go on.
ReplyDeleteWhen I've packed, I use towels and clothes to support breakables. It works really well!
ReplyDeleteThese are some great ideas. We have a little bag storage box in our pantry where we put plastic grocery bags if we've forgotten our reuseable ones at the store or had too many items and needed a plastic bag or two on top of the bags we brought. We re-use them when cleaning out the cats' litter box, as small trash bags for our bedroom trash (like you suggested too), and we've used them when moving or otherwise transporting fragile items. I stuff packages with plastic bags if I need to send something to my family.
ReplyDelete