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Green Journal: Creatively Reusing Plastic Bags
October 15, 2007

I try very hard to avoid those plastic bags when shopping. I generally purchase my produce loose (to avoid those smaller clear bags), bring my own shopping bags to carry things and pack my child’s lunches in reusable containers. In fact, I try to avoid plastics whenever I can. But plastic bags seem to have scary, cloning powers because I still end up with a big pile of them. Other than reusing them on subsequent shopping trips or as small trash bins, I really had no other good ideas. So I asked around and discovered a few interesting ones including:

• Cover up for plants to prevent frost damage. Gently tie the ends around the branch to prevent it from blowing off. Don’t forget to take them off in the mornings.
• Protect exposed pipes from freezing in the winter. You may need several layers of bags, depending on how extreme the temperature is.
• Use them as packaging materials to prevent the temptation of buying new or extra plastic and Styrofoam peanuts.
• Take them to the local food bank and thrift shop for reuse. Many places appreciate not having to buy new bags.

Actually, one of our readers, ValerieG had a good idea for dog owners: take tied-up plastic bags to local dog parks for others to use while picking up after their dogs. Although many dog parks try to provide bins of poop bags, they are usually empty. It still won’t biodegrade but at least it is being reused and helps keep the community clean. So I sorted and tied up some of my plastic bags and dropped them off in the bag bin during my dog walk this week. Just in time apparently because there were two dog walkers who were had forgotten their.

Of course, it’s still best to reduce plastic consumption. But if you find yourself stuck with a stockpile of bags, please try ways to reuse them. And if you have other creative ideas of reducing or reusing plastic bags (or anything else), please let us know for our Reduce,Reuse,Recycle Blog Carnival.

Don’t forget. Today October 15th is Blog Action Day. Visit Blog Action Day to read what others have to say or are doing about the environment!

CindyC at Organicpicks

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Related Posts:
Reduce,Reuse,Recycle Ideas
Plastic Trash
Reduce Packaging Materials

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