What to Do with Plastic Grocery Bags

I absolutely refuse to buy trash bags. It seems just wrong to pay good money for something you know you're going to throw away.

I, doing my part for the environment (and being cheap…oops, I meant economical), recycle the plastic bags from the grocery store. Its not like there are ever a shortage; baggers are trained to put only two or three items per bag. Its subliminal…ten bags and you think you got a lot of food for that $50 you spent. Like no one has caught onto that one yet!

With the small bags all you need to do is empty the trash container more often. The house smells better; ants and bugs don't march in quite so quickly for their own little picnic. Sounds logical to me! So, why are you still buying trash bags out there? I know people who buy trash bags and then throw away the free ones. I’m sure that Glad appreciates the business. Yeah for the economy!

The flip side of the urge never to throw anything away is you have lots of bags lying around. I have bags full of bags. I use about a third of the bags I come home with. Bags go to the library for the kids carrying their books home on a rainy day. Bags go to the Goodwill for those bargain shoppers. One less expense to charity is always a good thing. Still, those pesky bags just keep piling up. Secretly I think that the library and Goodwill hate to see me coming with my mountain of bags…again.

Oh, yes, I've thought about other uses for the bags. Do you remember the 50s (my Mother told me about it) when oil was cheap? Walls used to be insulated with newspaper. How about a movement to insulate our houses using plastic bags? The ultimate in recycling, a Stop and Shop house! Another thought, would the bags make it waterproof? Emmm. Guess we'd have to check on that.

What if we had a really hot day and the sun melted all the plastic together inside the walls? Could we take the paneling and plaster down and have washable plastic walls? Could we color and draw on them like a giant eraser board, then wash them to have plain walls again? Could we stencil? Could the artist in us come alive? Oh, such possibilities.