Take Your Plastic Bags Back to the Store

Recycling is very important to me, sometimes to the dismay of my husband, who complains about clutter. The plastic grocery bags accumulate, even though I mostly use cloth bags. The plastic ones still find their way into my home.

To keep them organized I simply stuff them into empty tissue boxes. If one gets full, another one will neatly stack on top of it. It's very easy to pull one out of the slot intended for dispensing tissues, and I conveniently get one at a time.

I toss a full box into the car so I am armed with plenty of bags when I go to the farm stand or grocery store. Some stores even give a bit of credit off your bill per bag reused.

*TIP* Be careful your tissue box doesn't accidentally get scanned or you'll end up paying for a box of tissues you didn't purchase! Use a separate box for other, larger bags, like those from Sears, Penney, Walmart, etc. They can be reused too!

By Grayce from Fort Pierce, FL

Related:
Uses for Plastic Grocery Bags

Previous: Save Money By Saving Trees

Next: Ideas For Reusing Large Coffee Creamer Canisters

Feedback

Read feedback for this post below. Click here to post feedback.

By 03/22/2010

What I do instead of using kleenex boxes is that I go to Goodwill and buy the cheap plastic kleenex box holders and then I just stuff the bags into those holders and they look nicer than a bunch of boxes - they have designs on them

By 08/05/2009

I found several You Tube videos on making "plarn" or plastic yarn and have crocheted handbags and other articles out of it. This link seems to be be best method. See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESQbELunPZg&feature=related

I have found that the filmy plastic bags used for produce in the grocery store make a pearly-looking crocheted work that is quite pretty. It needs to be cut about 1 1/2 in. wide as it is quite fragile. I crocheted some plarn squares and attached them together with bright yarn for decoration and also make handles or drawstrings out of yarn for decoration.

Grocery bags are fine, though, and speckles of color from the lettering on the bags makes a neat flecked design.

By Nancy NAGEL (Guest Post) 06/26/2008

I work in a charity thrift shop and they always can uses clean plastic bags. Please think of those places because if we do not get enough bags we have to buy them and it takes away from our profits for the Day Care. Nan

By 06/25/2008

I make plarn from those bags, from all stores, and have made purses and market bags from them. If you get overwhelmed with them maybe someone you know crochets and would use them. You can also crochet rugs from them, doggie beds, lots of stuff!!

By Teresa (Guest Post) 06/25/2008

You can just use a black marker to mark out the bar code so it wont get scanned again.

By 06/24/2008

If you are taking the plastic bags back to Walmart for recycling, I was told by a store employee that Walmart just throws the bags out. I was so disappointed.