Trash bags are ultra boring to ponder, but if your goal is green living, it’s smart to give trash bags some thought.
The EPA estimates that the average person creates 29 pounds of trash per week so when you add up an entire household of trash then bag it, well, that’s a considerable amount of trash bags. Plastic trash bags pose large threats to the environment. One, that’s a ton of plastic left to linger in our landfills and two, the manufacturing of said bags uses energy and nonrenewable resources. Some plastic trash bags will break down a little while hanging in the landfill, but most don’t, especially if they’re stuck at the bottom of a trash pile, unexposed to the rain, snow, sun, and so on.
Your choices:
Plastic trash bags – not great (see above).
Paper bags in my opinion are a little better than plastic, but only because they break down. Manufacture wise they take a lot of energy to make, and plus, you shouldn’t have excess laying around. You should be taking reusable bags to the grocery store. Also paper bags suck when it comes to holding wet stuff. If you do go with paper look for 100% recycled paper bags.
Recycled plastic bags are a decent choice, with many containing as much as 80% or more recycled plastic content. They cause less pollution to manufacture then do new plastic bags plus use less petroleum.
Your best bet is a combination of recycled paper or plastic and creating less waste to begin with. Buy less stuff to start with. Hold a trash audit and see what you could be recycling vs. tossing. Compost what you can or grind up leftovers in the garbage disposal.
[image via stock.xchng]
Post from: Blisstree