Recycling plastic bags

give them to me so i can use them to pick up my dog's poo

Park Slope food coop does yogurt and plastic bag recycling - today from 10 - 2. There is usually one day a week they collect the plastics. You do not have to be a member. It will be right out in front. 782 Union Street.

damn how did you ever get that many bags :O.

Get yourself one of these:


http://www.simplehuman.com/products/trash-cans/in--cabinet-cans/cabinet-mount-trash-system.html


It probably wouldn't work for a large family - but it is a great way to store and use plastic bags as trash bags. You can store only about 20 bags in the storage area, but it is enough since I am constantly going through them. I'm so glad I got one.

Anybody know where I can get a sturdy yet folds down small canvas bag? I want to throw it in my purse to use on the way home, but none of mine fold really flat. Thanks

from the Build It Green newsletter

Plastic Bags No Longer Left to the Wind

In other recycling news, two weeks ago NY City Council passed a plastic bag recycling bill. The bill will require stores over 5000 sqft to offer plastic bag recycling containers and track the resulting recycling. The bill is a good first step increasing recycling for plastic bags.

Some plastic bag facts:

- Americans use an estimated 84 billion plastic bags annually, approximately one billion in NYC.

- Production of plastic bags worldwide uses over 12 million barrels of oil per year.

- A plastic bag is used on average for only 12 minutes before being discarded.

- 80 per cent of marine trash comes from the land and nearly 90 per cent of that is plastic.

- Plastic is lethal in the marine environment, killing at least 100,000 birds, whales, seals and turtles every year.

Ideally, the City Council's next step should be to reduce the amount of plastic bags used in the city. Offering recyling will not reduce the number of bags that are manufactured and put out on the streets of New York. The recycling bill leaves it up to the consumer to bring back bags to the store. Additionally, plastic recycling while always preferable to landfilling is subject to some caveats.

Most plastic bag recycling is actually "downcycling". Downcyling means that the orginal material is turned into something of lesser quality and value which often itself can not be recycled. Plastic bags will probably not be recycled into other plastic bags but made into some other lower quality plastic material. The reason for this is that during recycling, plastics degrade and forms smaller particles. Each time plastic is recycled, it is used for a lower quality product than its previous state until finally the plastic particles are so small they can not be recyled. So the best option, is as always to reduce our consumption and then recycle what we cannot reduce.

There are many good examples of policies that encourage shoppers to bring their own bags and not take unneeded bags. Australia, San Francisco, Bangladesh and Rwanda among other countries have banned plastic bags. Germany and Ireland have had taxes on plastic bags for many years. Whole Foods will no longer provide plastic bags.

Hopefully, New York will pass more far reaching legislation eventually. Until then, remember to bring your own bag to the store.
A good article in the Guardian UK on plastic bags

Ace wrote: Why don't we recycle them at the residential level?

Wrong grade of plastics, I guess. Or is it that they aren't marked with the recycling # (the # in the triangle) and are made of different materials?

Anyway, that's cool that the OP found the recycling day at the Coop. Here's the schedule,
available to non-members (it happens outside, in front of the store)
You have to bring stuff clean and dry, and you sort it by # into big bags.


The yogurt containers (#5 plastic, not accepted by the city) go to the Preserve people, who make toothbrushes and other consumer products out of it. Preserve gets over half their plastic directly from Stoneyfield.

Plastics recycling outside the Park Slope Food Coop tomorrow (Saturday)
10am - 1:30pm