The Right Habit: Recycling Plastic Bags

Posted by aplasticbag on June 21st, 2011

With a large number of custom printed plastic bags available at the consumer level for a wide range of events and promotions, you can find the perfect design to suit your needs. After the event or promotion, it’s important to remember that taking care of the environment is something we all can contribute to. Did you know that plastic grocery bags Type 2 (high-density polyethylene film - HDPE) and Type 4 (low density or linear-low density polyethylene film - LDPE/LLDPE) can be recycled at your local supermarket and other locations? Once your custom printed poly bags are recycled, they are made into lumber, trashcan liners or plastic bags again, which reduces the carbon footprint we leave in the environment, which is something to benefit both the planet we live on and the future generations to come.

The first step in participating in protecting our environment from needless waste is finding out if your local curbside recycling program will accept recyclable plastic bags that you have left over from the supermarket. Let’s face it: unless it’s reasonably convenient for us to go recycle plastic bags, it’s unlikely most of us would go out of our way (in our busy schedules) for this task. Dropping off plastic grocery bags at your local grocery store, even if you cannot recycle them through your curbside program is a great option. Most grocery stores will accept plastic bags and have recycling bins inside the store that they convey to recycling centers afterwards.

Remember to exclude any plastic bags that are dark in color or bags that have handles or drawstrings. Plastic food packaging and plastic food wrap (Saran wrap) that are also non-recyclable. Be sure to clean and dry your plastic bag thoroughly before recycling, making sure they are empty of any debris. This is important, since foreign objects will contaminate the plastic as it is being recycled. Also, it is important to check with your county department of public works to find out about local curbside recycling programs and community drop-off centers, or look under "Recycling" in the Yellow Pages and other online directories.

Usually, the type of plastic the bag is made from should be printed somewhere on the bag for anyone to see easily. Often plastic bags that are used for bread and other products are made from Type 2 and Type 4 plastic, but are not marked. They can usually be recycled with plastic grocery store bags unless they have the numeral 7 on them, which means they are definitely not recyclable because they have already been recycled to a certain extent. For additional information, visit www.aplasticbag.com to learn more.