What do you do with your plastic bags when they’re no longer needed? Do you put them in the trash? Do you put them in your curbside container and hope for the best?
Plastic bags are not easily recycled through conventional means. Yet, they’re not a great item to throw in the trash either. It’s because there are many challenges in recycling plastic bags. Recycle Nation dives into these challenges and what you can do to help the environment.
The Problem with Plastic Bags
Microplastics are everywhere. If you’re not familiar with microplastics, they’re tiny pieces of plastic that are smaller than five millimeters. They’re concerning as they harm fish and other aquatic animals, but there is also growing evidence that they increase a person’s risk of heart attack or stroke.
Recently, a group of high school students collected water samples from eight different remote lakes in Grand Teton National Park. Microplastics were found in two of the lakes. How do they get to these remote lakes? It often comes down to rain and wind spreading microplastics to even the most remote areas.
One plastic shopping bag (the type that stores or restaurants use to pack your purchases) contains about six grams of plastic. That’s six ounces that could end up as microplastics months or years later.
These shopping bags are also one of the most difficult to recycle, and should never go into your curbside recycling container. Many people toss them in the trash instead.
Once they’re in the trash or recycling stream, they’re at risk of blowing out of a truck, getting caught in machinery, or blowing out of a landfill as they start to degrade, where they become airborne microplastics. They’re one of the many plastics that end up becoming microplastics in these remote lakes and forests.
While they’re hard to recycle, there are ways to ensure they end up becoming part of a circular economy. Recycling is the best solution to stopping plastic shopping bags from ending up in the soil and water in the world.
Challenges with Plastic Film Recycling
One of the biggest challenges is that you cannot recycle plastic film and shopping bags using traditional recycling machinery. The plastic film catches on wheels, fans, chain drives, etc., and causes serious damage. Instead, they require specialized machinery that draws them into water baths, shredders, and eventually extruders and injection mold systems that heal and melt the plastic fibers.
Another issue involves plastic film with multiple layers. If you have something like bubble wrap where there are two layers of plastic film heated and sealed on top of each other, it makes them harder to recycle.
Flexible plastic film generates about 23% more greenhouse gas to manufacture it than it does to recycle and reuse it. It’s better for the environment, but there are difficulties.
Not every plastic film is recyclable, and that’s hard for consumers to grasp. Generally, #2 and #4 are. The plastic film must be stretchy and not make crinkling sounds. Shopping bags are recyclable through plastic film recycling.
If it’s not stretchy, it’s probably not accepted in plastic film recycling facilities, so you have to be careful about what you try to recycle. Pay close attention to the guides you find on the store’s recycling containers.
If you recycle materials that are not acceptable plastics, the same issues occur. Lines must stop while workers remove the offending plastic. It wastes time, electricity, and money. Once a line is stopped, it takes more energy to start it back up after clearing any jams.
Understanding Plastic Film Recycling
Across the U.S., there are more than 20,000 locations that accept plastic film for recycling. Your grocery store likely is one of them. Some city recycling facilities also accept plastic film. You’ll spot a green bin with a recycling logo on it and information about plastic film recycling. Many grocery stores have them in the bottle redemption area.
The recyclable plastic film is marked with a plastic film recycling logo. That includes items like:
- Appliance wrap
- Bread bags
- Bubble wrap
- Case (beverage) wrap
- Cereal bags
- Clothing bags
- Dry cleaner bags
- Freezer and storage bags
- Grocery bags
- Plastic wrap
- Produce bags
- Product overwrap
- Shipping mailers and air pillows
The plastic film is processed to become new, much-needed items like plastic lumber (Trex) and other construction materials, park benches, shopping carts, plastic crates, new plastic film products, storm water management equipment, and playground equipment. To do this, the plastic wrap needs to be clean and dry. At the processing plant, the following steps occur.
- Bags are washed to remove any items like receipts or twist ties.
- They’re shredded into small fibers.
- They’re checked to ensure large pieces don’t remain (If there are larger pieces, they’re moved back to the start of the process.)
- The plastic fibers are pelletized and stored in storage containers until needed.
- The plastic pellets go into extruders and molds where they’re melted down to become new items.
Tips for Recycling Plastic Film Correctly
How do you make sure you’re recycling your plastic film and grocery bags correctly? The first step is to find out if your area grocery stores participate. Many do. Among the many participating retailers are H-E-B, Hy-Vee, Kohl’s, Meijer, Publix, Safeway, Stop and Shop, Target, Walmart, and Wegmans. You can also ask your local recycling facility in your city or county.
Once you’ve found a location, check their guidelines. Some have a QR code you can scan to access the most current list of recycled materials accepted at that recycling bin. Most use the same general guidelines of clean and dry plastic bags, wrappers, and sheets, and nothing that crinkles.
Make sure only plastic film is in the bag you’re dropping off. If you put incorrect items in the plastic film recycling container, it adds to the already expensive cost of recycling these materials.
If items do have some moisture, use a clean, dry cloth to wipe them dry. You don’t have to throw away damp film. Just make sure it’s completely dry before you recycle it.
In my house, we took a picture of the plastic film products our local grocery store accepts. We have a clear trash bag that we collect all plastic film in. When it’s full, we put it in the back of our SUV and bring it into the recycling nook when we go grocery shopping. It’s that easy.
Even better, Recycle Nation has an online tool to help you determine where to bring different recyclables. If you’re not sure where your nearest plastic film recycling bin is located, enter plastic film, your ZIP code, and submit it. You’ll know instantly where to go.
