What can I use to put my garbage in?

Question

I've been trying to do my part with helping the environment by taking my own reusable shopping bags to the grocery store, but now i dont have any plastic bags to put my garbage in. Any suggestions that will work and still be earth friendly?

Answer 1

don't alter your life so much as to inconvienence your self. use plastic trash bags. recycle your paper bags. don't let the enviromentalist kooks get so far into your brain. enjoy life to the fullest and live for yourself. don't be so gullable to be fooled by the likes of al gore. example- al gore travels around the globe in a gulf stream 5 to tell us to ride our bicycles to work, and has 4 mansions. if ELF was so concerned about the invironment, why would they start big fires on newly built homes and cars in dealerships, and polluting the air with all the smoke and soot caused by them-live comfortably my brother! nothing wrong with conserving, just be sensable about it!!

Answer 2

You can buy biodegradable rubbish bags.

We've found that as recycling facilities improve, we have virtually  no actual rubbish any more, maybe the same will happen with you!

Answer 3

Try paper bags.

Answer 4

If you take your plastic bags to the store to be recycled, keep some for you to put your garbage into.  Get yourself a cloth bag to carry your groceries home in.

Answer 5

This might be extreme but there are a number of things you can do.

1. compost as much as possible.  I have a worm composter in my kitchen and it has reduced the amount I put into my garbage by soooo much!  I know this sounds unpleasant but you'd be surprised.  I have a number of friends who thought I was crazy for having 'worms in my kitchen'.  Once I showed them the compost container though (which is actually an old plastic spinach container than I have reused) - they have asked for some worms for their own kitchens.  These worms won't crawl out of the container since they will stay where the food is!  i also put it under my sink because they do their best work in the dark, and out of sight.  Just in case, I have taped sections of nylons over the 'breathing holes' that I made in the lid of the composter (I actually did this to reduce the ability of gnats getting into the composter).  I also have a backyard composter.  Together these composters have reduced our garbage from about 4 large bags a month to about 1.5!!!! (We have cats and we aren't vegetarians so we can't put cat waste or any meat/dairy products in the composters, hence some garbage is produced).

2.  Buy metal pails (with a plastic lid is fine) for your kitchen waste - such that you don't have to use plastic bags.  When you take your garbage to the curb, dump it in another metal container, without the use of a plastic bag.  Metal containers are somewhat hard to find but I eventually did find one at a local thrift store.  I suggest metal because plastic gets scraped up (think of an ice cream pail - after a few re-uses - it gets scuffed up on the inside).  The garbage smells can get absorbed by the plastic when it's roughed up.  When you use a metal container, the smells cannot adhere when the containers are rinsed out.  I use vinegar water to rinse out my container - this eliminates the garbage smell and ultimately there is no need for garbage bags.  If your large garbage container starts getting full and stinky, it means that there is no oxygen getting to the decomposing garbage.  What I do is mix it around so that oxygen can get to the stuff at the bottom of the can.  Garbage only smells bad in 'anaerobic conditions' which is a condition where there is no oxygen getting to the bacteria, so they change how they 'breathe'.  This change causes the rancid 'garbage smells' to be produced.

I think it's fantastic that you are trying to do your part.  If only more people did what you are doing - what a different world it would be!

cheers!