Simple Tip of the Week: How to Buy Fewer Trash Bags

After living abroad for seven years, I consider drawstring trash bags to be a luxury. Nevertheless I do buy them in my home country. However, by also reusing shopping bags, I don't have to buy trash bags as often. We also cut down on our volume of garbage by recycling, which reduces the need for any kind of trash bag, free or otherwise. Here are two options that we have tried in the kitchen:










OPTION 1: Plastic shopping bag

This works for me since any
kind of garbage, wet or dry, can
be tossed in the smaller bag.

OPTION 2: Paper sack

If you compost food scraps
elsewhere and/or have
fairly dry trash, the paper
alternative might work well.



What is nice about lining the can with a larger, "luxury" bag is that it catches anything that doesn't make it into the smaller shopping bags. Of course, we could also just get a smaller kitchen trash can, but we believe in using what we already have.

Looking for other helpful ideas? Go to Kitchen Tip Tuesdays and Tuesday's Tip Jar.