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Recycle your plastic bags once they can no longer be reused. You may be able to put them out with your other curbside recycling, your local grocery market may have an in-store plastic recycling program, or you may be able to find a plastics recycling center near you.

How to recycle your plastic bags

1. First, reduce the amount of plastic bags you take from the store in the first place. Fill up your grocery bags as much as possible at check out, and avoid using plastic produce bags when possible.
2. Next, reuse the bags that you do take home with you.
3. Once the bags have been reused and are no longer useful, make sure they are clean, dry, and empty before recycling.
4. Before dropping off your recycling, make sure you know what types of plastic are accepted. Some stores with designated recycling bins only accept grocery bags, while other locations may accept all #2 and #4 plastic bags. Call your municipal government or local drop-off center to find out which plastics they accept. Then check the number in the recycling arrows on the bag to find out if they are accepted. Don't contaminate the recyclable plastic with plastic food wrap or #7 plastic.
5. Drop off your recycling. You can put them out on your curb if you have curbside recycling, drop them off at retailers providing designated bins for plastic bag recycling, or drop them off at a local recycling drop-off center. You can find out if curbside recycling is available in your area by contacting the local government body, or find a drop-off location near you at Earth 911's Recycling Centers Finder or PlasticBagRecycling.org.

Recycling your plastic bags helps you go green because…

• It reduces the threat posed by plastic bags to wildlife by ensuring that they end up at recycling centers, not as litter.
• They can be recycled into products like composite lumber, containers, crates, and pipe, thus reducing the amount of primary petroleum resources to make those products.
• It is preferable to landfilling them. Plastic bags take 450 to 1,000 years to break down.[1]

Each year, 30 billion plastic shopping bags are used in the United States, requiring about 12 million barrels of oil.[2] These bags create an enormous amount of waste: the EPA reports that, in 2000, 3.3 million tons of polyethylene (plastic) bags, sacks, and wraps were discarded in the US.[3] These discarded plastic bags end up in landfills, where they can take up to 1,000 years to biodegrade, or they litter oceans and beaches, threatening wildlife.

Making plastic bags also uses large amounts of natural resources: it takes 430,000 gallons of oil to make 100 million plastic bags, according to the Worldwatch Institute. Recycling allows new products to be made without acquiring virgin natural resources. Recycling just one ton of plastic bags saves 11 barrels of oil.[4]

Drawbacks

Remember the green hierarchy when it comes to recycling: recycling should be third priority behind the ideals of reduction and reuse. Reducing the amount of plastics you use and reusing the plastic products that you do own has an even larger environmental impact than recycling. Some eco-experts worry that the public perception of recycling as "environmentally friendly" may have the undesired effect of leading to an increase in plastics consumption, which is not necessarily coupled with a corresponding increase in the plastics recycling rates.

External links

• eHow.com - Recycle Plastic Grocery Bags