I don't know if many other families also do this but we have always saved all paper and plastic bags we get from our purchases for later use. Paper gift bags can be used for having a nice temp bag to bring your clothes or shoes around while plastic bags are mostly used for garbage, which saves us from having to buy garbage bags. It might not sound like a lot of savings but considering we would potentially be buying them multiple times regularly throughout the year it does add up to a substantial amount. Do you do the same thing in your household? Do you have any similar practices that you think might not seem a lot at first but would look significant when viewed in an annual perspective?
I assumed most sensible people would save the bags to be honest. I don't know anyone who throws them out unless they are ripped or damaged because most places are starting to charge for bags now. I keep them because they are useful and are make shift laundry bags on trips and good for shoes, but even if you don't use them most stores have a bag recycling bank where you can take them.
Yep, I do! Although I don't save ALL of them. I would become overwhelmed with plastic bags if I did. I use them at home for bathroom trashbags, etc, but I don't always remember to take them back to the store with me.
Plastic bags are now banned in my hometown. There is a ten cent fee per paper bag. I still have a nice collection of paper bags. Sometimes I forgot to bring my reusable bag or I make an unexpected stop at the store.
I’m also in an area where plastic bags have been banned, aside from the ones in the produce section. I do save those, though, and I use them for stinky garbage that I don’t want to smell all through the house (mostly cotton balls soaked in nail polish remover, ew). When we still had regular plastic bags, I used those for smaller garbage bins as well. Kind of bummed I have to buy garbage bags for those now. Paper bags can be decent makeshift garbage bags as well, plus my cat loves to sleep on them, so I’ve saved a little stash of those as well. And the smaller ones are good for softening fruits.
We do the same at home. We save plastic bags, paper bags and shoe boxes and use them for storage, disposal and transport purposes. It's good that companies are now thinking of the environment by producing eco-friendly and biodegradable plastics. At home, we use plastics (biodegradable or not) as makeshift garbage bags. For storing clothes and other items while on a trip, we use paper bags. Shoe boxes are normally used to store shoes when they're not in use.
We also save the paper and plastic bags that were included in the purchase for future use. The paper bags just mostly end up in the thrash can as buffer between the thrash can and the thrash, but the nice ones that are thick and with a handle are kept for more important uses.
I use plastic grocery bags for all my trash. I haven't bought a trash bag in years. I can't imagine how much I would have spent on boxes of trash bags over the past few years if I wasn't using grocery bags.
Yes, I do this and have done that for a long time. We don't have paper bags over here, and I tend to use the cloth eco-bag. But whenever I do get some paper bags, I save them and use them for disposing rubbish. Plastic bags make for very good bin liners, so I very rarely by bin liners.
