Greener Garbage Bags

Trash bags aren’t something you probably love to think about, but choosing the right one for your household trash can make a difference.

Plastic trash bags pose pretty large threats to the environment; both in terms of the sheer amount of plastic trash bags leave in landfills, and in terms of manufacturing these bags. Some bags break down some while hanging in the landfill, but most don’t, especially if they’re stuck at the bottom of a trash pile, not exposed to the elements.

Choices:

You have some choices when it comes to what to bag your trash in. Sadly, not many. Trash bags are a huge convenience for most families. The best choices are as follows.

Create less trash. This is an easy one; well not easy, but it does eliminate many trash bag issues. If you can compost old food, and recycle as much as you can. You can buy less stuff, which will help. You can also buy items in reusable containers or packaging.

Paper bags are a good choice for trash, except they don’t hold wet stuff all that well. You can compost (as noted above) to eliminate this wet food in a paper bag issue. Look for recycled content paper bags to use for trash.

Recycled plastic bags are another, better choice, than conventional bags. Many recycled plastic bags contain a large amount (sometimes 80% or more) recycled plastic. They aren’t quite so polluting to manufacture as new plastic bags, and use less petroleum as well. They aren’t perfect but are far better than brand new plastic trash bags.

Where to find recycled plastic trash bags:

• Seventh Generation
• Best Earth-Friendly Trash Bags
• BioBag Biodegradable & Compostable Bags

So, all in all, thinking about your trash may not be fun, but it can help the earth.