TRASH-TALKING IS OUR BAG
How to Cut Your Spending on Plastic Trash Bags—and Keep a Few Out of The Landfills

Perhaps there are a few Grinning Planet readers who have the luxury of just opening the kitchen window and throwing their trash into the hog pen out back, but most of us are stuck using a kitchen trash can. If you buy plastic trash bags for that can, here's a way to save a few bucks: Use standard plastic grocery bags as trash can liners instead.

The grocery bags tend to not be quite as large as standard kitchen liners, so you may need to invest in a new, slightly narrower trash can. (Maybe your garage or shed can use the old trash can?) Medium-sized rectangular models seem to work well.

The slightly smaller size of the grocery/trash bags will probably mean you'll have to empty the can slightly more often, but the bags are free, and you will have eliminated the environmental cost of using specially manufactured trash bags.

Here are a couple of hints to make the free-trash-bag game work well for you:

• Check the bags for small holes that may have occurred while you were transporting your groceries home. If you avoid putting liquid or gooey stuff in the trash can, the little holes aren't much of a problem, but it's always better to start with an un-holey bag. Any bags that are unusable because they've got swiss-cheese disease can often be recycled at your grocery store.
• When you empty the trash, you can get the bags to stay closed better if you use the handles to tie a triple-knot (instead of the normal double-knot). No twist-ties or plastic strappy things required!

You can also save the large plastic shopping bags some stores give you for bulky items that you've purchased. These are good for the times when you need something closer to a 30-gallon bag than a kitchen trash bag.

We pause now to salute the nonsensical saying, "It goes without saying"—because that phrase is ALWAYS followed by the thing that supposedly does not need to be said. In this case, it may be obvious, but we're going to say it anyway: Your trash bag usage will fall even more if you can boost your level of recycling of paper, glass, plastic and aluminum. Starting a compost pile for your vegetable waste will reduce your trash output even more. (How much trash per person does your household put out compared to the houses around you? Who are "the trashy neighbors" on your street?)

So, when the grocery checker disturbs your entranced perusal of the tabloid headlines with the inevitable question, "Paper or plastic?" remember that "plastic" can be the right answer. One final thought: Do you REALLY want the drug store clerk to put just that one little pack of gum or other single item in a bag in the first place?

Publish date: 13-MAY-2004

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"It's amazing how much a few pieces of plastic and paper will sell for if the purchasers are parents or grandparent..."

— Lawrence Kutner