4 ways to reuse plastic grocery bags

Recycling is a great way to save the environment. We can reuse and reproduce the materials that we drink and eat out of. Nowadays, it’s a lot easier to recycle by have a big waste bin just for everything that can be recycled. If you can’t recycle now, you don’t care about the environment, and that’s NOT COOL.

Nice logo here on water reuse

Eat the cup!

Drink from the cup and then eat the cup!

My family shops at the grocery store Whole Foods pretty often, and we always come home with tons of paper bags and lots of plastic containers (which are used to store the fresh foods, nuts, etc.). One way my family and I have decided to reuse and repurpose these containers is by putting our leftovers in them. They are the perfect size for a refrigerator and they are easy to clean. We reuse the sturdy paper bags for transporting miscellaneous things when needed.

If you would not like to reuse the plastic containers, you can always recycle them at your local participating Whole Foods: http://blog.wholefoodsmarket.com/2009/01/gimme-5-recycling/

Every time we go to the grocery store we use plastic or paper bags to carry the food home. This is a waste of tons of paper and plastic and recycling can be expensive. To solve this problem we can bring our own reusable bags from home, but remembering to do this every time can be difficult. So instead we could also reuse the bags they give us for various purposes. In my family we reuse our plastic bags when we take our dog on a walk or to carry our lunch to school. Here’s a link with 20 creative ways to reuse your plastic and paper bags from the grocery store.

There is no reason not to reuse and recycle. Many people think it is really hard because you have to put a lot of effort into it, but you don’t. According to Utah.edu Americans throw away enough garbage to fill 63,000 garbage trucks a day. Unfortunately I never really recycled before this project, but after reading all the ways to recycle and researching it I see how useful recycling is. Recycling saves money and landfill space and it reduces energy use, fuel use, and the rate of global warming. It also improves efficiency, air quality, and water quality. By just recycling one ton of aluminum, 14,000 kWh of electricity, 1,663 gallons of oil, 237.6 million Btu’s of energy, and 10 cubic yards of landfill space can be saved. Recycling one aluminum can can save enough energy to run a TV for three hours. Now think about how much resources could be saved if people recycled all of their glass, paper, plastic, cardboard, and steel. The website linked has a lot of information about how much each material saves and how much Americans waste. It helps you realize why recycling is important.
Reusing is also important and there are many organizations to help with this. I know this because when I was in fourth and fifth grade I grew a lot and at the end of each of those years I had a lot of clothes that had not really been worn, but did not fit me. Donating clothes is not only a good deed, but is also very good for the earth. One store that I think is a really good charity is the Interfaith Hand Me Up Shop. This is a nonprofit shop that funds community outreach programs, such as helping un or under employed people with living expenses, elderly outreach programs, meals on wheels for South Montgomery Program, and family crisis intervention. I work in this shop sometimes for NCL, all of the employees are volunteer and they sell donated clothes for a cheap price. I think this is one of the best stores because it helps fund majority of the charities around where I live, but there are also places like the Salvation Army and there are some places that even pay you for your clothing, like Playdoughs Closet.

I’ve heard a lot of talk about not using the bags that the grocery store provides and that we should bring our own bags for carrying goods to the car, but what about the plastic bags that are already made? They can’t be recycled very well, and most of them end up in landfills after a one-time use. My family uses plastic bags as a way of carrying lunch, but the following link provides much more creative ways of reusing a plastic bag, including crocheting them into a rug! But whatever you decide to do, reusing plastic bags is a great way to help the environment.

When things break or get old we usually through them away. We through out so many things, and most if not all of them are recyclable in one way or another. For things such as clothes, games, or books there are places like Goodwill where we can donate them. For things that cannot be donated we can recycle. There are so many creative ways things can be recycled. Everything from tires to jeans can be recycled in a creative way. You can make a swing out of an old tire, or an old pair of jeans into a bag. There are so many ways we can recycle our old things, and below is a link to a website with many creative ways to recycle our old things.