360: Recycling Plastic Bags
Earth911’s 360 series breaks down the ins and outs of your everyday items.
Many of us have plastic bags stuffed into the doors of our cars, under the kitchen sink or in various nooks in the garage. With about 89 billion plastic bags, sacks and wraps used each year, recycling is paramount.
In 2007, more than 830 million pounds of plastic bags and film were recycled nationwide, up 27 percent from 2005. Plastic bags can be made into dozens of new and useful products as well. So, let’s get down the basics about plastics bags and figure out how to save this material from the landfill.
According to the EPA, in 2007, the U.S. generated almost 14 million tons of plastics in the municipal solid waste stream as containers and packaging, almost 7 million tons as non-durable goods, and about 10 million tons as durable goods. Photo: Howstuffworks.com
Top 10 Reasons to Recycle Plastic Bags
1. It’s Right Around the Corner
According to the Plastics Division of the American Chemistry Council, more than 1,800 U.S. businesses handle or reclaim post-consumer plastics.
2. It’s Worth a Thousand Words
Plastic bags photodegrade, meaning they slowly break down into smaller and smaller bits that can contaminate soils and waterways.
3. We Need a Boost
According to the EPA, only about 12 percent of bags and film were recycled in 2007.
4. Everyone Wants It
There is a high demand for this material, and in most areas, demand exceeds the available supply because many consumers are not aware that collection programs are available at stores.
5. It’s Easier Than You Think
It takes 91 percent less energy to recycle a pound of plastic than it takes to recycle a pound of paper.
6. You Can Save a Trip
For every seven trucks needed to deliver paper bags, only one truck is needed for the same number of plastic bags.
7. Just Let It Burn
Plastics can help trash burn more efficiently in energy-recovery facilities, creating energy that can be used to make electricity in some communities.
8. It’s Going Coast to Coast
Small plastic bags made up about 9 percent of the debris found along various U.S. coasts in a five-year study.
9. Save Some Gas
When one ton of plastic bags is reused or recycled, the energy equivalent of 11 barrels of oil is saved.
10. It’s So Trashy
According to the EPA, the amount of plastics generation in municipal waste stream has increased from less than 1 percent in 1960 to 12.1 percent in 2007.
Tips on Recycling
Due to their light weight, most curbside programs do not accept plastic bags. They can easily get stuck inside machinery when recycled as well. However, most grocery stores throughout the U.S. now offer plastic bag recycling. However, the trick is actually remembering to take those excess bags with you next time you go to the store. Here are a couple of reminding tips:
- Hang a cloth bag in your kitchen or garage where you put excess plastic bags. It will be easy to notice once you leave the house.
- When filling out your grocery list, make sure to add “recycle plastic bags.”
- Don’t forget about the other light weight plastics! Plastic film, dry cleaning bags, newspaper bags and plastic wrap from products can be recycled at your grocery store as well.
- Toss your leftover plastic bags in your reusable shopping bags. You’ll remember both on your next trip to the store.
Many grocers and retailers now offer drop-off programs that allow shoppers to return their used bags to be recycled. In most stores, bag collection areas are located at the front entrance or near checkout areas. Photo: Independent.co.uk
The Recycling Process
A plastic bag is a thermoplastic, meaning it is capable of being repeatedly softened by heat and hardened by cooling.
1. First, the plastic is melted down.
2. The softened plastic is then pushed through an extruder. To visualize this, reflect back on the days when you owned a Play-Doh kitchen set and you made delicious plates of bright green spaghetti. Squeezing Play-Doh through the little machine to make it into noodles is similar to extruding.
3. An extruder die appropriately shapes the plastic before it is cut with a knife.
4. The end result could be a large piece of composite lumber or thousands of little pellets, which can be used to make other plastic products.
What’s Next?
Although many consumers reuse plastic bags in their homes for daily tasks such as doggy duty or taking out the trash in the bathroom, there are still other products that plastic bags can actually become once recycled.
Plastic bags can be made into second generation products including durable building and construction products, door and window frames, exterior moldings, low-maintenance fencing and decks. Plastic bags can also be reprocessed into post-consumer resin used in the production of new bags, pallets, containers, crates and pipes.
Though the discussion of plastic bag bans has increased (the U.N. has even suggested a global ban), San Francisco is currently the only U.S. city to outlaw them.
- (02/09/2009). "Recyclable Plastic Bags " American Chemistry Council http://www.americanchemistry.com/s_plastics/sec_content.asp?CID=1102&DID=5615.
- (07/01/2008). "Reusing and Recycling Plastic Bags" American Chemistry Council http://www.americanchemistry.com/s_plastics/sec_content.asp?CID=1102&DID=5005.
- (11/06/2008). "Common Wastes & Materials: Plastics" U.S. Environmental Protection Agency http://www.epa.gov/osw/conserve/materials/plastics.htm#benefits.
Farima
posted on June 15th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
I had no idea plastic bags were recycled like that and could make so many different products. Thanks for the info!
Shop Long Distance » 360: Recycling Plastic Bags - Earth911.com
posted on June 15th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
[...] Go here to see the original: 360: Recycling Plastic Bags – Earth911.com [...]
m. bucolic
posted on June 17th, 2009 at 11:58 am
my pants and shirts are sent to a laundry from work. when they return they are on hangers in a plastic bag. the bottom of the bag has a hole in it where the hangers go through, so i tie it in a knot and send my dirty laundry out in the same bag. hangers are also recycleable.
nnancy
posted on June 17th, 2009 at 12:21 pm
I have tried and tried to find an answer to this question but haven’t – we use our small plastic bags for our daily trash – usually one bag per day. What are we supposed to use for trash if not the small grocery store bag? It doesn’t make much sense to recycle the grocery store plastic bag and then buy “garbage bags”??? I’m confused. I don’t want to just throw the trash into the garbage can, that would be messy and draw little critters.
Christi
posted on June 17th, 2009 at 1:11 pm
Great article Amanda!
We’ve all really got to do our part to recycle these bags. They are such a pollution problem around the world and as you said they photodegrade after such a very long time.
I am repurposing them into reusable tote bags and am currently recycling them for 12 different families!
When we all do our small part we can change the big picture!
Sincerely,
Christi
Did you know that for every ton of plastic bags that is recycled we save 11 barrels of oil? « Prime Electronics
posted on June 17th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
[...] http://earth911.com/blog/2009/06/15/360-recycling-plastic-bags/ [...]
Crystal
posted on June 17th, 2009 at 1:49 pm
I re-use plastic bags as liners from my trash can. It that worng?
Joe
posted on June 17th, 2009 at 4:02 pm
My supermarket offers 2 cents for each plastic bag reused for carrying groceries. The same supermarket charges about 6 cents each for small trash can liners (bathroom size) in boxes of 30 bags. For every bag I use as a toilet or kitty litter bag, I net 4 cents. I don’t see the value in recycling them (but I do recycle those with holes in them).
Joe
posted on June 17th, 2009 at 4:06 pm
I forgot to say that I have not been recycling magazine wraps, etcetera but will now start doing so. Thanks for that tidbit.
Meg
posted on June 17th, 2009 at 7:40 pm
I’m really confused about plastic wrap…is that what is meant by plastic film in the article? I called my roadside pickup and they said they don’t accept it…so then will the grocery store where I take my bags? or the community recycle bins?
Jennidy
posted on June 17th, 2009 at 9:06 pm
The large library where I work is also glad to take these bags. They give them to people at the circulation desk to help carry their books home in.
As for garbage I get the decomposable ones. Just make sure to get the ones for general use and not the ones that are just for yard waste.
Carol
posted on June 17th, 2009 at 11:51 pm
My local food coop no longer provides plastic bags at checkout, although in the self-serve bulk food aisle small bags are available (after all, things like oatmeal can’t be washed and you wouldn’t want to put that into an already used plastic bag). We voted them out overwhelmingly. The coop saves the cardboard boxes that groceries come in and customers use them on the back of their bikes. Everybody has several canvas bags. No problem. We also voted not to sell bottled water anymore. I feel so strongly about plastic that, instead of buying my favorite humus (which comes in a non-recyclable plastic container), I buy the dried chick peas (using a recycled plastic bag) and make it myself. Very easy. Feels good to know I’m doing the right thing.
Princess
posted on June 18th, 2009 at 4:49 am
Amanda,
Great to know that someone is going to save us from troublesome nylon/ plastic bags. you know these plastic bags render soils barren. They stop water and air from going into the soil when discarded freely. Say Amanda, what can we do about recycling women hair-do’s such as weaveons and wigs? Its really a bug, with plastic bags they join to block sewage pipes. Worst, they are nightmares for our domestic birds whose innocent claws get entangled in those hair-dos and the birds end up losing their legs. What a shame!.
Joyce
posted on June 18th, 2009 at 6:43 am
What about the plastic bags that are NOT grocery bags – those from some department stores, those that come in the box around each component of electronics, etc. Can those be recycled with the grocery bags or is there another place to recycle those. What with my compost heap and recycling efforts, I only have about one bag of trash per month for the landfill, but some of that is non-grocery plastic bags. I would love to become a non-landfill household!
Bob
posted on June 18th, 2009 at 8:36 am
If we don’t reuse the plastic bags for garbage cans, cat litter, and doggie patriol what should we use? Would it be better to ask for paperbags at the grocery store? Would that be a better alternative?
Linda A.
posted on June 19th, 2009 at 5:13 am
I’ve been recycling my plastic bags for a while now, ever since I discovered my favorite Big Y supermarket has a bin for that purpose. Whenever I get a bag (or two) full of bags, I just go to Big Y and stuff ‘em in the bin. I’m afraid I haven’t yet gotten into the habit of remembering to use reusable grocery bags, so taking my plastic bags back to the store for recycling is the next best thing. It alleviates my memory problem, and assuages my guilty conscience.
Once in a while, I’ll see some folks at the supermarket with reusable bags, but the reusable bag thing hasn’t really caught on, at least not around here, yet. (I live in northeastern Connecticut.) I was in Finland back in ‘72, and everyone there brought their own reusable shopping bags to the store with them because that was the only way they could get their groceries home. The stores there didn’t provide bags, and, let’s face it, the ONLY way the reusable bag idea is really going to catch on here in the States is for our stores to stop providing bags. They’re encouraging and reinforcing the use of disposable — albeit recyclable — plastic bags by continuing to make them available to us.
Andrea
posted on June 19th, 2009 at 8:45 am
We fill a paper bag of all plastic bags and put near grocery list. I have even used a small box, next trip to the store put them all in one bag and take with. I think I do the best when I take in my cloth grocery bag and put them in there so that when I try to go grocery shopping I have to take them with if I want my bag to bring groceries home in. I am really into recycling and even keep a recy bin in the kitchen opposite the garbage cont. When I get to that end of the kitchen I think twice which way to throw things.
Sandy
posted on June 19th, 2009 at 10:31 am
I teach high school science, and in my classroom, the trash can is labeled “To Landfill” and the recycle bin is labeled: “To Recycle.” There is no other choice.
I hope the message is re-enforced this way.
Joan
posted on June 22nd, 2009 at 10:41 am
I’m still using canvas bags I’ve had for 30 years, and also have the nylon bags that stuff into small pouches in my purse for when I go to Department stores, etc.
mysti
posted on June 22nd, 2009 at 2:02 pm
I HAD BOUGHT ONE OF THE $I.OO GROCERY BAGS WITH THE STORE LOGO ON IT THAT TORE AND I USED IT AS A PATTERN WITH SOME FABRIC I HAD FOR AWHILE ,DIDN’T KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH.THEY ARE MORE EFFICIENT AS WELL, DIFFERNT SIZES, DRAW STRING TOPS ON SOME AND POCKET ON FRONT FOR MISC. WHEN I PUT GROCERIES AWAY I PUT THEM BACK IN THE TRUNK SO I DON’T LEAVE HOME WITHOUT THEM. I’VE BEEN ASKED ABOUT MY LITTLE BAGS.I’M GLAD I’M DOING MY LITTLE BIT.MY GF IS GOING TO FLORIDA AND ALWAYS SHOPS ON I’M MAKING HER THESE BAGS OUT OF FABIC WITH ROSES SO SHE’LL NOT GET DEPT.STORE BAGS.
Tina
posted on June 24th, 2009 at 11:00 am
Great idea to recycle them back at the stores or use them as carry-alls, or lunch bags.
BUT my MAIN complaint is that store cashiers need to be retrained! We should limit amount of bags we get at the start….The cashiers need to learn to limit double-bagging everything (I EVEN GOT DOUBLE BAG FOR ONE LOAF OF BREAD! if you can beleive that! (EVEN WHEN I ASK “NO EXTRA BAGS OR PLASTIC”, and HAVING and SHOWING THEM my own green bages , they still use the plastic bags. What can we do to improve this problem?!
I think Bloomberg had an idea, people dont like to pay extra $ for anything even if its 5c, remember when 5c deposits first came out on cans? People learned to return them, right? i think we should have something similar and soon!
Carolina
posted on June 26th, 2009 at 9:40 am
If there is such a demand for plastic bags and they can be recycled into so many products, then why is the UN suggesting a global ban? Wouldn’t it make more sense to continue giving people the option to use them, but impose some kind of mandatory recycling for plastic bags?
Kimberly
posted on July 8th, 2009 at 12:30 pm
What can be done to ban the plastic mesh that wraps evergreen trees sold during the holidays? I am shocked at the tangled web of plastic mesh mounding up at the curbside on garbage days during the holiday season.
Also…what is the answer to the question of what to do with the plastic bags reused as can liners and such. Are we not still contradicting our recycle intent? I would like to know your suggestion.
Recycling Plastic Bags… Because Sometimes You Forget the Reusable Ones : Sustainablog
posted on July 13th, 2009 at 8:50 am
[...] Unfortunately, recycling these old bags isn’t often as convenient as other materials — you generally can’t put them in the curbside recycling bin, for instance. There are still recycling options, though… and we need to do this: currently, only about 12% of plastic bags get recycled. [...]
Project GreenBag
posted on October 28th, 2009 at 3:58 pm
The best thing to do is never use plastic bags in the first place.