eco-friendly - Surviving and Thriving

Washing and re-using plastic bags is a frugality meme that won’t die. Although it saves money and is an eco-friendly thing to do, it’s often derided in a “get a life!” way: You waste all that time and energy just to save a few cents?

I have a few thoughts about that. Washing takes just a few seconds. These bags cost more than a few pennies each. Finally, they’re made from petroleum or natural gas — a couple of non-renewable resources.

The Bargain Babe website recently resurrected the notion with a post called “21 reuses for freezer bags.” Some of Megan Thode’s ideas are clever but I disagree with some, such as using them to start seedlings, pipe frosting or transport used cooking oil to the trash.

To do those things would mean trashing a perfectly good Ziploc. Can’t play that way.

However, I do think that once bags spring pinhole leaks they can be used for some of her other suggestions, such as matching kids’ clothing or storing board-game pieces.

If you’ve ever run a race, donated to a charity, attended a convention or been a supporter of public television, you’ve probably got at least one tote bag in your life. Maybe multiple bags. Obviously they’re good as reusable grocery sacks, but that’s not their only use.

My friend Linda B. uses them to sort recyclables. Bags hanging from a railing hold newspaper, mixed paper, tin cans, aluminum, plastic bottles and glass. (And yes, I know they’re not “tin” cans. I also call it “tinfoil,” because I’m old.)

Linda keeps hats, gloves and scarves in a tote bag. In the winter the bag lives in the back of her car and in the summer it goes into the entry closet. Sounds neat and tidy to me – and here’s hoping she never gets stranded somewhere and needs to suit up.

How else to use these bags?

Yet another plastic-bags blog post.

10 uses for those ubiquitous canvas bags.