I have a confession to make, and I’m not proud of it. In fact I’m downright ashamed that I didn’t check my facts long ago, because I love doing research.
I thought I was doing a good thing by reusing paper grocery bags as trash bags. I thought, ‘Why buy plastic trash bags, which are derived from petroleum, when we could reuse paper grocery bags? Surely they’ll break down easily in the landfill because they’re paper.’ (That’s not an exact quote from my brain, but you get the idea.)
Oh, how wrong I was!
It turns out that paper bags not only take up more space than plastic, they also don’t get the natural resources they need to break down in landfills. And despite plastic bags originating from petroleum, producing paper bags uses up more energy and causes more pollution (not to mention the tree factor). I erroneously saw paper as the lesser of two evils. There’s an interesting chart comparing the two from the Washington Post.
However, grocers like Whole Foods are eliminating plastic grocery bags from all their stores by Earth Day, and if you don’t have reusable bags, they will use 100% recycled-content paper bags. So apparently they feel that recycled paper is the best alternative if you don’t have reusable bags, however there is contrary evidence on that.
Okay. So we know we should use cloth or reusable bags for groceries and general shopping, but there isn’t much information on what to use for your trash.
Turns out there IS no easy answer.
So, here’s our plan. Of course, one of the best things to do with your waste is to compost, which we did for many years in our previous house. We had so much going on personally and professionally after we moved last summer that we weren’t able to get it together to build a new compost bin before winter, and I didn’t feel right just making a pile in the yard (I think our neighbors already think we’re strange, so I didn’t want to stir up the pot). Once the snow is gone for good, we will make it a priority to build one and get started on a new pile.
For our non-compostable waste, I think our best option is to purchase recycled plastic trash bags. As for the paper bags we still have in the house, I don’t know, but I’ll make sure I have the facts this time to figure something out.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
thank you for sharing this information. i wonder about the paper bags that some municipalities require residents to use for leaves. i wonder if these bags ever break down?
i had a compost pile in my last house but have not started a new one since we moved because the yard is small, the houses are close together and i wonder about rodents. no one in my new neighborhood composts, that i can tell.
well, food (and compost) for thought! i’ll tune into your blog again!
adrienne
Hi adriennewe’re the only ones in our neighborhood who compost too, that’s for sure. But even so, I know (from living only 2 doors away from where we used to live and compost) that even though I have seen raccoons, opossums and skunks in the neighborhood, they were never interested in our compost pile. A few birds were mildly interested on occasion, probably for nesting supplies or a random seed, but they’re not a bother.
Regarding the leaves, that’s a good question! We don’t have to bag ourswe simply sweep them next to the curb and the village picks it all up for recycling, which is nice. But after doing a quick search, it does seem like most towns recycle/mulch the leaves along with the paper bags and very little ends up in a landfill, so that’s good news!
Hi Denise, When the grocery stores changed from paper to plastic bags a several years ago, we lost our source of recycable bags for collecting paper waste. We didn’t think it was appropriate to just put the loose paper in the blue bins as it seems the recycle trucks would put the metal and glass into separate areas from the paper waste (someday I should go out there and ask him if it matters!). So, we’ve ended up using those large yard waste paper bags to collect our recycable paper waste. We can get several weeks worth of paper into one and we try not to make it too heavy for him to pick up (magazines can add a lot of weight). We’re the only ones I’ve seen doing this, but then everyone else seems to have those huge trash bins and we make do with a small can. As for the plastic bags I’ve ended up using them for picking up doo from our dog. Obviously not the best way to dispose of the waste, but, outside of digging doggie latrines around the yard, I haven’t figured out a better way to dispose of it.
Hi, Denise…
We re-use our paper bags by filling them up with our recyclables and placing them in our recycle bin for pick up every two weeks. For us, it serves two purposes: Not having them end up in the garbage fills proper, but rather recycled immediately along with all our other recyclables; And they are a fantastic way to contain your recyclables without having a ton of tubs and bins to sort everything out. Of course, it helps that we live in a “no-sort” city, so all we do is chunk everything in a bag til it gets full, and pull out another one.
We also reuse our plastic bags as garbage bags under the kitchen sink. We don’t generate a terrible amount of garbage from week to week, and the little handles are convenient to pull the bag out when full and tie the bag shut, dropping it in the garbage bin.
I honestly can’t remember the last time we actually bought garbage bags… Except for the yard. Sometimes for all those leaves and things, you just need the big ones!
Thanks for posting that info. I’d heard that plastic was “better” than paper a while ago, but hadn’t gotten such a detailed description as to why! I get plastic when I forget my totes and I really need to try to remember — just have those totes in the car. Always.
A note on composting, which we do: if you compost all fruit and veggie scraps (plus lawn clippings, leaves, etc.) and NO animal products, you should not have any problems with rodents, pests, or any bad smells. We never have.
We have bio-degradable bags for dog poo, they must make something similar for garbage. We only compost uncooked fruit and veggies, and stuff from the garden. We have one of those black plastic composters, it was there when we bought the house. Our neighbours were composting fish in their compost, it was really disgusting. Someone called the health officials, and they asked them to stop. We do have rats around, I don’t know if they go for the compost, I sure they find garbage more palatable. I’ll have to look for better garbage bags, when we need them next. Seems like going green effects everything we do, down to the smallest details.
I think it’s important to remember that reusing ANY bag is the best answer, whether paper, plastic, or cloth. If you are resuing your paper bags, but wouldn’t reuse a plastic bag, the best answer is the paper, regardless of the production facts. The best answer of course would be to get cloth bags and reuse them and not use any trash can liner… we do this since we compost all liquids. If something accidentally gets in the trash can we just hose it out.
So many great comments and suggestions! It’s nice to hear what other conscientious people are doing with their trash, and it’s great to hear that so many compost (however Derek’s neighbor was grosscomposting fish?!).
Also Derek, I was checking out the BioBags for our trash, which is probably what you’re using for the dog. Apparently if your landfill is considered anaerobic, then it doesn’t look sound like the BioBags decompose any better than regular plastic bags, unfortunately. However, they suggest emptying the dog’s waste in the toilet and then composting the bag; or composting the waste and bag, if that’s feasible (but that might get kind of gross, too).
Bruce, we no longer have to separate our recyclabes, so we just dump everything into our bin loose. It hasn’t been a problem at all, so I would check into it for your townwhy bother with an extra bag if you don’t have to?!
Thanks everyone, for your input!