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Learn ten easy and smart ways to reuse those plastic grocery bags before recycling them for good.

Ten Ways to Re-Use and Re-cycle Plastic Bags

What do you do with them? Any neat tricks?

I never throw a bag out unless it is very ripped up. My uses:

-Carrying things from place to place
-Lining my small trash cans
-Smelly kitchen trash goes in them to remove from my home daily
-Picking up dog poop
-Small trash bags in my car
-Storing small items dust-free
-Storing food
-Shipping material when crunched up

I can always find a use for these bags. Some people think they are nuisance bags but I love them, and it saves me money to reuse them.

I use for trash bags certainly.

If you need to keep opened packages of meat, fish or leftovers for just a day or two, I use grocery bags instead of plastic wrap or storage bags. Not an air tight seal, but enough protection that food won't dry out.

I also use for trash bags. My mother used to weave plastic bags into rugs for our porches. Jilly, I hadn't thought of weaving them into bags...great idea. Sure wish I would have paid attention when Mom was trying to teach me this stuff.

Hi, Jill.
Great article on plastic bags. I recently watched a news report where several states are banning plastic bags - California was mentioned as one of the states banning plastic bags.
I use plastic bags in my vegetable containers in the refrigerator as linings to help keep the containers clean. I have also used plastic bags as containers when moving. I doubled and tripled the bags and tied the top after filling them. I was surprised how easy the bags made moving. The movers only had to grab the top and head to the truck. They were able to carry several bags in a single trip. The bags did not tear open like everyone told me they would.
Again good article.
Thanks.

Dean....I love the idea of lining the plastic veggie bins in the refrigerator. Great tip!

debbie, this is great:

"-Shipping material when crunched up"

I think i might replace the diaper bag idea with this one! What a great, free shipping material.

Dean, I've heard that about banning the bags. In many countries they are banned. I think in Europe you have to bring your own sacks or you have to pay for bags. I can see that happening here.

It will probably be better for the environment to not produce these things and not have them blowing around. I know it's a huge problem in waterways, where animals eat the bags and then starve to death. Apparently the bags look like jellyfish.

Also, the Pacific Gyre (garbage island the size of Texas) is composed largely of these bags, i hear.

And really, plastic doesn't truly decompose, so much as just break into smaller and smaller pieces.

Overall, yeah, I'd be in favor of such a ban. In the meantime, it's still a great frugal resource.

Jenny, I'd like to know how your mom made these too!

I am sure there are instructions on the internet and probably how-to videos, though.

I am not especially crafty, but braiding bags seems easy enough. Then i guess you wind the braiding up and stitch them into an oval?

"If you need to keep opened packages of meat, fish or leftovers for just a day or two, I use grocery bags instead of plastic wrap or storage bags. Not an air tight seal, but enough protection that food won't dry out."

Frank, that's good thinking. It works well for quickie food storage! No need to waste the expensive Saran Wrap for something you only need covered for a day or two.