As that stand on their own. When you buy carryout for 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 leftover paper bags that keep them out of the landfill.
Yes. We need to do whatever possible to keep our bags out of the garbage dump. We need to figure out what other uses we can make of the leftover, no longer needed paper bags. Let’s begin with the most obvious thing. Recycle the empty bags. They can go into the recycling bin 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 malls. These recycling dumpsters take just about every type of used paper except for cardboard. If you toss out a lot of newspaper, you can use the paper 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 bending them. This gives the paper bags one more useful duty before being recycled.
Another use for paper bags comes up at holiday and birthday time. If you have to mail gifts, paper grocery sacks 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 mailing a shirt in a box from a department store, you don’t need a second box for mailing. Just wrap the gift-wrapped shirt box in a flattened grocery bag, tape it up, and write on the address.
You probably don’t want to buy your lunch every day. It’s expensive and provides too many calories. You should carry your lunch two or, even better, three days a week. When you package up your lunch, don’t use a fresh, new paper bag every day. Save your carryout bags and use them to carry 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 put it on the table to provide protection and to make clean-up simpler. The kids can paint or play with their clay without dirtying the table. They can even paint on the bag itself. Think of the paper will be saved. Paper bags also work as by painting with poster paint, watercolors, or colorful markers.
As you can see, reusing paper bags can make a tiny contribution to your recycling effort.
