As I was bagging up the trash and thinking some more about ways to reduce expenses and help the earth, I realized that I am spending money on plastic trash bags that could be replaced by something else.
Plastic doesn't break down in the environment. Using the plastic grocery sacks for trash bags can be done to save money, but they are plastic. I prefer to use a large tote for shopping and not even bring the plastic grocery bags home.
Back when we still had goats, I used the large paper bags that feed came in. We bought it 50 pounds at a time, so that's sizable bag. They're tough, being made of two layers of heavy paper, and they will break down in landfills. However, I don't have any livestock anymore which means I may need to talk to people who do and see if I can get feed sacks from them.
You know, I can remember my mother wrapping vegetable peelings and other garbage in layers of newspaper before throwing it away. She'd peel potatoes onto the newspaper pages. Then cleanup amounted to just rolling it all together instead of picking it up by hand, discarding it, then having a terrible messy spot on the counter. I could still be doing that and tossing it all into my compost heap, right?
The good news is that while checking out at the world famous discount store today, they were using all paper sacks! I was actually excited, silly me! I learned that the cashiers always have paper sacks for anyone who requests them. Too bad they don't publicize that.
What are you doing to avoid buying commercially made plastic bags or to reduce expenses similar to this?
