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Comment by jensv | Hacker News Reader

I use plastic bags (from groceries) as a garbage can liner and always feel bad because I suspect there might be a better or less wasteful way to reduce plastic usage. Anyone have any ideas or tips?

I feel like I should use reusable grocery bags but then I have to clean the garbage can (boohoo).

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I think you must mean the smaller trash bins sprinkled throughout your house, right? Because a kitchen (main) trash bin is typically too large for little shopping bags? In any case, have you looked into compostable bags? I tried a bunch of different brands and a lot were not very stiff/strong at all until I got a 100pack of stuff that's almost indiscernible from a regular trash bag, except green.

I'm not sure how it works in your house, but in mine the small trash cans throughout rooms are almost entirely filled with compostables like paper towels, tissues, floss, and tampons (I've gotten in arguments about whether floss and tampons will actually compost - that experiment is currently running in our backyard). So you could just Chuck those bags straight into the compost bin, if your city has it. If it doesn't, maybe not a good idea cause the bags will just disintegrate at the landfill and blow trash everywhere.

Really the answer here is convince local government to do recycling and compost collection and make an effort to purchase and cook in such a way that as little goes into the landfill bags as possible. I recently visited my childhood home in Texas and felt super gross when my only option for a can of Coke I had finished was chuck it straight into the bin... I've been thinking a lot lately about how stuff just is accumulating in landfills. Maybe it's my SF instincts screaming "that's a couple square miles of great real estate if it wasn't full of trash!" Lol.

> I've gotten in arguments about whether floss and tampons will actually compost - that experiment is currently running in our backyard

I, for one, would love to know the results of said experiment once you are satisfied that it has run it's course. Also, do you happen to have a link to the compostable bags? I gave up trying to find some that worked years ago.

Unfortunately I don't remember the exact brand, but when I get home I'll at least tell you that. Theyre probably available online somehow but I get them from the local hardware store.

> I think you must mean the smaller trash bins sprinkled throughout your house, right? Because a kitchen (main) trash bin is typically too large for little shopping bags?

Depends on how many people you have/how frequently you empty your bin? In my apartment, it's just me + my partner, and we empty our main trash about twice a week, using a regular shopping bag. Most of our waste is food waste (we have a food waste bin) or packaging (which can be recycled).

Our kitchen bin is the smallest in the house. We use the small sandwich bags that vegetables etc come in at the supermarket and dispose daily.

Floss is often / typically Nylon, which will take decades. If you accidentally wound up with PTFE floss (which is apparently a thing) I'd expect millennia unless it's in direct sun. Tampons should biodegrade at home, but I'm willing to bet there are large swaths of the US where composting anything with human fluids is illegal.

In any case, hat-tip for empiricism! Very pro composting, wish it was safer, smaller, and easier to do at home.

Unless they are the fancy unbleached 100% cotton organic tampons, I doubt they would compost. Tampons and other menstrual products aren't required to have an ingredients list, so who knows what's in there. I believe most tampons have synthetic as well as natural fibers. we

Personally, my menstrual cycle has been 100% reusable since 2003, and I much prefer reusables to disposables on a comfort level. I mostly use cloth pads, but I use a cup sometimes also. I used to be the opposite - mostly cup, sometimes cloth pads.

Reusable grocery bags and tell the cashier you don't need bags when you're only buying a few things (just carry them out). Cashiers always default to putting even one item in a bag but just need some prompting to not do so. My wife goes so far as to take things out of the plastic bags and leave them for the odd occasion that the items end up there during checkout. Small trash cans usually don't need to be emptied every week, unless they contain organic matter. And when small cans do need to be emptied, you can often dump them into your larger weekly trash bags.

Maybe in the US. In most of Europe there’s a minimal fee associated with getting a plastic bag with your shopping now.

Much of the US is like that too.

You haven't seen much of the US.

Even in the bay area the stores in Milpitas were handing them out (~4 years ago now).

Up until recently it was a County/City issue across California, cities and counties instituted their own bans, but not universally.

Now there is a statewide ban on plastic bags, and a fee charged for paper bags.

Not going to speak to the rest of the US, but as I understand it, many States are in the same phase as California was with the local bans.

One tip, is to keep re-using them as long as you can. We have non-biodegradable trashcan liners for our kitchen trash-can. It helps that we recycle, compost, and are vegan (so nothing particularly icky is in the trash). We can usually go 2-3 months on a single kitchen trash bag, they usually give out because the corners wear out and start to tear.

I use BioBags, which are compostable. They are a little flimsy, however, and break down quickly with wet trash or food scraps.

http://biobagusa.com/products/retail-products/

I live in Finland where recycling is wide-spread, and most buildings have facilities for disposing of:

* Plastics

* Cardboard

* Paper

* "Biological stuff"

My single biggest gripe is that the biological (i.e. food) waste has to be put in biodegradable bags, and these break very very easily when moist. The end result is that you need to throw out quartyer-empty bags every day, rather than full bags every few days. If you gamble chances are your bag will tear en route to the garden/central bins.

Keep a paper bag in the freezer. When it is full toss the whole thing.

Great idea. I have to take out bio waste every couple of days just because of the smell.

In the UK we have a selection of bins, one for the plastic + metal + glass and another for the paper/cardboard. To go with that we also have a food waste bin. There is no need to buy anything that won't fit in one of those bins and therefore no bin bags are required.

I had a bit of difficulty persuading an American housemate to recycle, it was my turn to buy bin bags, I bought clear ones and after the neighbours complained and shamed my housemate for trashing tonnes of cardboard (they could see what was in those black bags when they were transparent) a change of habit was made.

All waste should be clean plus factories such as the Honda factory in Swindon can exist on a zero waste basis then so can anyone.

Take pride in your recycling and having squeaky clean bins!

There are some biodegradable plastic bags: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bin_bag#Biodegradable_plastic_...

I did an Amazon search for "biodegradable bin bags" and it turned up some stuff that seemed to be relevant here.

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