Plastic bags

Thrifty tips, ideas, news & experiences on anything around the home to shopping to re-cycling etc.
User avatar
Spreckly
Legendary Laner
Posts: 5826
Joined: 26 Mar 2011, 14:21

Plastic bags

Post by Spreckly »

I have always re-used my plastic bags. For our grocery shopping, we use the large, strong bags, which last for years, but for our household waste and caravanning I rely on plastic bags, and oh dear, we are soon going to have to pay for them. It is surprising how many we can use in a week at home, or a few days away in the vans.

I am wondering if there are alternatives. Black bin liners will be no use for the house, though for caravanning I could make use of them. We shall soon be lighting fires, and I do burn stuff rather than use the waste bins. Has anyone any idea of a smaller plastic bag which would hang up in a back entrance, and be suitable for household waste?
Totally Scrambled
Site Admin
Posts: 13291
Joined: 07 Jul 2009, 20:33
Gender: Female
Location: Wateringbury, Kent

Re: Plastic bags

Post by Totally Scrambled »

You can get small bin bags for pedal bins that are about the same size as carrier bags. The ones at my local smarket come in either draw string or handle variety.
Another way round it is to buy fresh meat, fish, razor, knives blades, veg and axes and ask for a seperate carrier bag for each item and the bags will be free )t'
Dom
Ali Woks My World
User avatar
Meanqueen
Legendary Laner
Posts: 7617
Joined: 19 Jan 2008, 19:49

Re: Plastic bags

Post by Meanqueen »

Hello. I'm wondering what you mean by household waste, is it what's left over when you have sorted out the items for recycling? I have very little when I have separated the tins, glass, plastics, paper, and cardboard. I have a tall bin in my kitchen cupboard and line it with a charity bag. Not very environmentally friendly I know, but I have got tons of them, and one bag takes two weeks to fill. Anything smelly I bag up into small bags, bread bag, cereal bag, veg bag, etc, and it goes straight in the wheelie bin.

When you say hang up in a back entrance, why does it need to be hung? Can you use a bag with no handles inside a bin? If you go to a market stall, or a discount store, they have bags of all sizes.

If you are using so many in a week can you reduce that by packing more rubbish in a bag before you throw it out?

Ilona
User avatar
HedgeHugger
Legendary Laner
Posts: 1942
Joined: 28 Jun 2011, 18:25

Re: Plastic bags

Post by HedgeHugger »

Sainsbury's do pedal bin liners
http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/morrison ... qu9q4QwBxA

55p for 40

I know it's not free, but cheapest I could see, and cheaper than plastic carrier bags.

Wonder how much stalls/small shops pay for their boxes of carrier bags? Would probably work out even cheaper if you could find some, but would need to buy quite a lot.
User avatar
Richard
Lord Lane of Down...... Site Owner
Posts: 30037
Joined: 26 Apr 2007, 22:48
Gender: Male
Location: Ashford, Kent, UK

Re: Plastic bags

Post by Richard »

Interesting, I do the same spreckers and use the Plastic Bags for waste.

Will buy bin liner bags now.

I'm glad they're charging though - except the fact the English have to make it ten times more complicated than the Scots and Welsh - there it's just 5p., take it or leave it !!

Richard
New Member? Get more from the Forum and join in 'Members Chat' - you're very welcome
User avatar
Spreckly
Legendary Laner
Posts: 5826
Joined: 26 Mar 2011, 14:21

Re: Plastic bags

Post by Spreckly »

Thanks for your replies, folks. We don't use a waste bin inside, years of having dogs have taught us that they love to rummage! I hang my carrier bag with stuff for the bin high out of dog's way! One of my elderly shelties loved to rummage in the hearth yike* despite putting house bricks in front of the fireguard! They are a devious breed.

Ilona, we don't have much waste, as I said, much less during the winter, and we do recycle as much as we possibly can.
User avatar
Richard
Lord Lane of Down...... Site Owner
Posts: 30037
Joined: 26 Apr 2007, 22:48
Gender: Male
Location: Ashford, Kent, UK

Re: Plastic bags

Post by Richard »

Spreckly wrote:I hang my carrier bag with stuff for the bin high out of dog's way! One of my elderly shelties loved to rummage in the hearth yike* despite putting house bricks in front of the fireguard! They are a devious breed.


Crikey spreckers, exactly as I do. Not because of pets, just don't like Bins !!

Richard )t'
New Member? Get more from the Forum and join in 'Members Chat' - you're very welcome
User avatar
lancashire lass
Legendary Laner
Posts: 6528
Joined: 28 Jun 2007, 15:17

Re: Plastic bags

Post by lancashire lass »

my kitchen is small (more like a narrow passage from the dining room to the back door so I don't have space for a pedal bin either (makes me wonder what the previous owner did) and usually fill a supermarket carrier bag on the sink drainer. In my old house, I put 2 hooks behind the cupboard door under the sink and used to hang up the bag there (for the same reason of the dog) - I had a lot more cupboard space in the kitchen back then so wasn't a problem.

Like Ilona, I also use charity bags a lot too (beware, some have holes punched in them near the bottom) but recently the bags have not been pushed through the letter box as often so I get the really cheap big roll of black bin liners from the supermarket.
User avatar
Mo
Legendary Laner
Posts: 15368
Joined: 30 Apr 2007, 09:39
Location: Cheshire (nr Chester)

Re: Plastic bags

Post by Mo »

Why not empty the plastic bag into the wheelie bin and use it again?

Bags are not what they were. I wash and collect bread bags etc all year then when I start giving away apples I soon run out. Old carriers now decay - I suppose it stops them looking unsightly blowing about but they don't biodegrade they just get eaten disastrously by smaller sea creatures. And I can't keep on reusing them for the freezer etc. when they turn into snowflakes.
Dance caller. http://mo-dance-caller.blogspot.co.uk/p/what-i-do.html
Sunny Clucker enjoyed Folk music and song in mid-Cheshire
User avatar
KathJ
Longlasting Laner
Posts: 934
Joined: 12 Sep 2012, 13:13
Gender: Female
Location: Shropshire

Re: Plastic bags

Post by KathJ »

I'm a bit confused about the carrier bag charge >dum< I thought it was an environmental thing but if you can just buy plastic bags from the supermarket anyway is that going to stop the numbers being thrown away?
I don't have space in my kitchen for a pedal bin either but have a bucket in the cupboard under the sink and I sometimes put a charity bag in there too so I can throw in away easily. I know it's not what they're meant for but I suppose they are being recycled.
)ot: I too have noticed that the charity bags don't seem to be coming though the door for collections anymore, maybe because they weren't getting many back. Typically though I have been collecting stuff for them and could fill a bag if I had one!!
Kath xx

Mum to my beautiful girls Lucy, Holly, Rosie, Hettie, Polly, Ruby, Lily, Penny, Gracie, Maisie, Molly, Evie and my gorgeous boy Toby

RIP my beautiful Ranger, Roxy, Bluebelle, Poppy, Speckle, Daisy and Honey xxxx
User avatar
lancashire lass
Legendary Laner
Posts: 6528
Joined: 28 Jun 2007, 15:17

Re: Plastic bags

Post by lancashire lass »

KathJ wrote:I thought it was an environmental thing but if you can just buy plastic bags from the supermarket anyway is that going to stop the numbers being thrown away?


basically it is to encourage people to recycle shopping bags (or use their own) whereas before they were so freely available that people didn't bother. The end result, as most of the bags are thin and flimsy so each bag was never properly filled, is that the once used bags end up in the dust bin as rubbish (some people wouldn't consider using them for collecting the rubbish), or worse, dropped as litter. Now when people have to start paying for each bag, they tend to start reducing the number of bags they need or start considering more heavy duty bags which they can re-use. As the charge is small, some people will probably carry on using the bags but add up those charges per bag at every shopping trip over a course of a year and especially for the less well-off, it can get expensive. So it's more of an incentive than banning the bags altogether.

Mo wrote:Why not empty the plastic bag into the wheelie bin and use it again?


truthfully, that would probably be the better option but when bins are only being emptied once a fortnight, anything that goes off will quickly make for a smelly bin (and life is too short to then have to start cleaning the bin out ....)
User avatar
Spreckly
Legendary Laner
Posts: 5826
Joined: 26 Mar 2011, 14:21

Re: Plastic bags

Post by Spreckly »

I agree, about the smell in the wheelie bin with the fortnightly bin collection, which is why I use a carrier bag, which when full, I tie up and chuck in the bin.

We used to get quite a few charity bags, which were large enough to store our caravan bedding in. If we get one a year through the door we are lucky.

We haven't a Sa....b..ry's anywhere near us, so getting their bags is out, but I shall have a good look round to see what else is akin to the plastic shopping bag.
User avatar
Mo
Legendary Laner
Posts: 15368
Joined: 30 Apr 2007, 09:39
Location: Cheshire (nr Chester)

Re: Plastic bags

Post by Mo »

Anything smelly goes on my compost heap (and the council collects kitchen waste too)
Dance caller. http://mo-dance-caller.blogspot.co.uk/p/what-i-do.html
Sunny Clucker enjoyed Folk music and song in mid-Cheshire
User avatar
Meanqueen
Legendary Laner
Posts: 7617
Joined: 19 Jan 2008, 19:49

Re: Plastic bags

Post by Meanqueen »

My grey wheelie bin, general rubbish for landfill, stinks to high heaven. I put my dirty cat litter in it, in the paper sack that it came in. I don't care what it smells like, the bin is outside in the garden. I only get a wiff when I quickly open and close the lid.
Ilona
User avatar
Spreckly
Legendary Laner
Posts: 5826
Joined: 26 Mar 2011, 14:21

Re: Plastic bags

Post by Spreckly »

Had a look in the houehold aisle in Mo..... sons this morning, and found a roll of bags with a tie top for under a pound. Not tried one out yet, but looks as they could be a replacement for carrier bags.

In town this morning I saw more than a few people with strong hessian type bags!

My parents had a strong paper carried bag, and my Father used an old Scout haversack for articles from town. We had so many shops in our village, and all the groceries, meat etc were delivered.
Post Reply