This article may contain affiliate / compensated links. For full information, please see the disclaimer here.
Since plastic is such a large portion of the average waste produced by a household, it is likely that you will start to see the garbage that you place on the curb lesson each week as you put new habits into place over the next few weeks. However, you are still going to need some sort of garbage bag. The good news is that there are now plastic free garbage bags. Now there are pluses and minuses to these bags, but I do believe that the biggest plus is that they are not made from plastic!
Today’s challenge: Change up your garbage bags. My first suggestion is to use up the supply of plastic bags that you have on-hand. If you cannot fathom throwing any more plastic bags in the garbage, then donate the rest of your supply to a charity and look for other options. My favorite option is to use bags that you already have. If you come to my house, you will usually find an empty chicken feed bag lining my garbage can. I love to repurpose things that would otherwise end up in the trash!
Once you have exhausted the above ideas, now is the time to look for non-plastic garbage bags. These bags are made from bio “plastics”, usually comprised of corn starch, potato starch, or sugars that are biodegradable. I like these Biobags. I admit, the biodegradable bags are not as strong as plastic and can start breaking down when exposed to lots of liquid. If you are concerned about biodegradable bags breaking or leaking, you can try these bags by Green Polly. They are made from 90% post-consumer recycled plastic, and 10% bio-resin. Still plastic, but at least not virgin plastic.
Whichever bags you choose, add them to your wish list. Do you already use bio-bags? What works for you? Please share to help the rest of us!
→ Back to the Plastic Challenge Homepage
Can you recommend some brands that you like?:)
I’ve used both the Biobag brand and If You Care. I like the If You Care brand better because they have handles of sorts so you can secure it more tightly around your garbage can and tie it up when done. All biobags are thinner than plastic, so you have to be careful not to overload or they will break when you put them out on trash day. You also don’t want to dump in hot food or a lot of liquid as both will start the breakdown of the bags. To be honest, we still have a bunch of plastic bags from a box I bought a loooong time ago. I interdisperse other bag options in between the plastic to try them out. I’ve been known to also use a dog food or chicken feed bag or even a bag from salt we use for our water softener. These bags would end up in the garbage anyways. I’m also interested in some newer bags that are made from sugar cane. These are not compostable because of the resin used to hold the material together, but they use significantly less CO2 in their production and seem a little sturdier.