As your bagger starts bagging your groceries asks the inevitable question: Paper or plastic? If you say paper, your groceries are put into large paper bags lunch, all the various boxes, cups and condiments are put into paper sacks. What do you do with all of these paper bags when they’ve served their purpose? Do you just toss them out? I hope not! There are many uses for used paper bags that keep them out of the landfill.
That’s right. We need to do whatever we can to keep our bags out of the garbage dump. We need to figure out what other uses we can make of the used, no longer needed paper bags. Let’s begin with the most obvious thing. Recycle the empty bags. They can go into the recycling dumpster right along with all of your newspapers, used computer paper, magazines, and catalogs. Recently such recycling dumpsters have been appearing in many parking lots, such as parks, churches, and shopping centers. These recycling companies will accept just about every type of used paper except for cardboard. If you toss out a lot of newspaper, you can use the brown grocery bags to hold the newspapers until you’ve collected enough to warrant a trip to the dumpster. They are just the right size to hold the newspapers without crumpling or folding them. This gives the paper bags one more useful duty before being recycled.
Another use for paper bags comes up when you need to mail gifts. If you have to mail gifts, paper grocery bags can be cut open and used to wrap the gifts for mailing. Just be sure to use enough tape to prevent the brown paper from being torn in the mail. For example, if you are sending a shirt in a department store box, you don’t need a second box for mailing. Just wrap the gift-wrapped shirt box in a flattened grocery bag, tape it shut, and write on the address.
You probably shouldn’t eat lunch out every day. It’s expensive and gives you too many calories. You should carry your lunch two or, even better, three days a week. When you make your lunch, don’t use a fresh, new paper bag every day. Save your carryout bags and reuse them for your lunch. Your wallet and your waist will both thank you.
Paper grocery bags are also useful for kids’ crafts. Cut open a bag and lay it out on the table to protect it and to make clean-up easy. They can paint or play with their clay without messing up the table. They can even paint right on the bag. Think how much paper will be saved. Paper bags also textbook covers for the kids’ school books. They can a tiny contribution to your recycling effort.
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