Recycle Plastic Bags: How To

Despite your best efforts to have a reusable shopping bag (See Baggler Bags!) on you when you’re running errands, an unexpected trip or purchase can end in you being the proud owner of yet another plastic bag. It may seem harmless to throw them in the garbage, but plastic bags aren’t biodegradable, meaning they’ll take hundreds of years to decompose. Your best bet is to take advantage of plastic bag recycling.

The easiest option for plastic bag recycling is to take them back to the store. Most national grocery retailers, including Target, Walmart, and Whole Foods, as well as department stores like JCPenney and Kohl’s, and home improvement stores, including Home Depot and Lowe’s, offer a bag collection bin onsite. You can type in your zip code here to find the options nearest you. Some retail locations may have a different policy regarding what they will accept for recycling, so always check first. Find out if plastic bags are recyclable.

Along with harboring a plastic bag in your home, you likely have plenty of other plastic packaging that could be recycled.

While plastic bags, wraps, and films can’t be recycled in your curbside recycling bins in most U.S. communities, any package you see with the How2Recycle Store Drop-Off label can be recycled by bringing it to the local retail stores mentioned above.

While grocery and produce bags are obvious qualifiers, you may be overlooking other flexible plastics made of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and low-density polyethylene (LDPE), such as bread bags, some plastic wraps, some plastic mailers, and some cereal bags.

Smaller plastic bags like newspaper bags and zipper sandwich bags may go unnoticed. These can also be recycled through Store Drop-Off. Stretchy plastic wraps, like those around multi-packs of drink bottles and paper towels, can also be brought to your nearest How2Recycle retailers.

There’s one crucial step of plastic bag recycling to remember! Be sure what you drop off is clean. That means removing receipts and gum, producing leaves, and other debris. Happy recycling!