How do you recycle your plasic bags from the store?

Question

You know those plastic bags[sometimes paper] that you get from any kind of store from retail stroes [like Macy's] or A food market [like pathmark,shoprite]. How can you recycle them. I've been saving them to recycle them, but I don't know where I could. Does anybody know how to recycle the plastic bags?????

Answer 1

I do several things with mine to avoid throwing them away until absolutely necessary.  I sometimes donate them to thrift stores so they can reuse, I also use them in small bathroom trash cans as trash bags. some are always stashed  in the truck and cars so that when my husband and I go exploring or we go on a trip I'll have a bag to bring home treasures in.  They would also suffice for a rain cap in an emergency when you had nothing else.  One of the very best things I did with the bags is to make a rug.  Cut the bags into about 3" wide strips which would make a circle, (you have to trim off some of the handle and trim off the bottom seal) slip loop the strips together to make a long chain, wind it into a ball and then crochet, using  a very large plastic crochet needle.  The rug is  very soft and plush and I keep it in front of my kitchen sink.  Just shake it out to clean, no need to wash.  So far, I've been using it for about three years and it shows no wear or breakdown and it's so easy on the feet.  Choose your own color scheme--all of one color or mix and match different colored bags from different stores.  Just find a way to use them over and over!

Answer 2

A local grocery store has a bin for recycling them.  The bags go into products such as outdoor decking.

Answer 3

You can recycle them in your curbside recycling container in Thousand Oaks, CA  - I don't know where you are located but there are generally bins in front of the grocery stores as well.

Answer 4

You can try a couple of different things. One, if you live near a giant eagle or wal-mart they both have collection bins. Giant eagle's is outside the door and wal-mart's is by the shopping cart's and greeter. Two, find out if your area collects plastic recycling or has a drop off spot. Most bags have a number on them. The area I live in recycles #1 and #2 so when I get a pile I take them to the recycling bin in my area. Hope this helps.

Answer 5

I worked at Wal-Mart.  They had a cardboard box at the front of the store for recycling the plastic bags but those bags just ended up in the trash along with all of the thousands of plastic hangers that were thrown away instead of recycled.

Answer 6

my way of recycling them is to use them again we use them to take things other places or in small trash cans around the house and when we clean the cat litter and things like that i mean they get thrown out eventually anyway but ive seen big barrels at the grocery store that  u can bring ur old bags and put them in

Answer 7

most stores that i know of have recycling bins and my apt complex does it too

Answer 8

some stores like HyVee have barrels for you to bring your bags back to to recyled them.  ours is located right inside the entrance door

Answer 9

If the bag has a number 2 on it, then most municipalities can recycle it.  I think reusing is best.  I give my bags to the fellow that has a shoe repair shop by where I work.  He is thankful.  I used to give them to a guy at a baseball card shop by me.  Lots of people in non-chain stores will welcome this because they don't have to buy bags.  You also can reuse the ones you have when you go to the store or don't take them in the first place and instead bring reusable bags.  One time I bought one item at my grocery: a box of garbage bags.  They person there wanted me to take it to my car... in a bag... life sometimes seems like a cruel hoax.  Another time I wanted a hamburger to go and they wanted me to take a bag.  Ridiculous.  The garbage can at the restaurant is full of bags that had a useful life of 7 feet.  From the counter to the trash bin.

Answer 10

i know that walmart and our local grocery stores have recycling bins.

Answer 11

I recycle the paper ones by putting them in the recycling bin. The plastic ones are sadly non-recyclable, BUT, you can do some things to get more use out of them.

Bring lunch to school/work.

Line your garbage can with one (convenient too)

Use them as interesting places to store something (ex, hang one from the roof in your office for storage of odds and ends.

I can't think of much else right now :(

Answer 12

At Macy's on State in Provo I know they have a bin in the front of the store close to the Customer Service desk. Wal-mart also recycles.

Answer 13

You can recycle plastic bags by using them again instead of buying new ones.That is called recycling.Do not be lazy.Take the bag with you to the store and use it again.

Answer 14

you can reuse bags like that, just take them back to the store and i think they give money for it . . . or just ask for paper and recycle those.

hope to help

Answer 15

at a few of our local grocery stores, im in Maryland, so at the Safeway, Shoppers and Giant, when you walk into the store, there, they usually keep a large container that is specifically for the plastic bags.

Our recycling program at home doesn't take them, and I had actually taken a large bag of them to the dump one day when taking some other things and the guy there said they are just considered "trash"... it's sad if they can't really be recycled, or recycled easily, there are a TON of these things all over the place.

I wish they would just get rid of them altogether. I've got about 8 of those re-usable ones the grocery stores are selling now for about 99 cents each and they work very well, if they would stop having plastic available it would make people find other ways to tote their groceries, even the paper ones would be much better.

But try looking in your local grocery store or ask an employee in onf of those shoprties if they recycle them, they may have a bin somewhere in the store that just needs to be more accessible to the shoppers.