[TheRootedNomad]

For multiple reasons I am attempting to do away with buying kitchen garbage bags. So far this year I haven't broken down.

Generally I would pick up a box/roll that got me through a month for $3.50 at the Dollar store.

With our 6% sales tax that would run me $3.71 a month providing we didn't use a lot of bags that particular month and have to buy more.

Over 12 months that would be a financial cost of at least $44.52. Now that doesn't seem like a lot but if you factor in that that is just KITCHEN garbage bags, not leaf bags, or bathroom garbabge bags you may end up with a nice chunk. I cut out paying for bathroom and leaf bags eons ago. The kitchen bag has been a little harder. Also there is the "green" factor.

Also since I generally spend less than $371 a month on groceries and such (if you don't count out to eat money) this cuts more than 1% off my grocery budget.

Again these are not big numbers but it's just one item and an item, that the faily doesn't really care about. If mom's gotta mess with something better the garbage bags than the bacon :lol:

 

[thesightofoneself]

in the green living section they have a forum "how much trash do you generate?"
How much trash do you generate? - Frugal Village Forums

a major thing would be a compost pile but that really depends on where you live and such. best of luck.

 

[Momto2Boyz]

I went a whole year without using garbage bags. We had 2 small metal garbage pails in our kitchen. One was for compost and one was for garbage (we also had our recycling can in the garage). They had lids, so that helped.

I just tossed the garbage in, then rinsed it out each time I emptied it into our big trash can. It was a bit more work, but it did work.

I have gotten back into the habit of buying garbage bags, but I get a 52 bag package at Aldi's for around $4, and it lasts me a full year, becuase we only fill up one bag a week.

 

[freebs]

I dont use trashbags at all. All things go into the dumpster just like they go into the trash can, bag free. Now all my food pretty much does go to animals that will eat it so it is just paper, things like that as we dont recycle here.

 

[Spirit Deer]

We re-use grocery bags, for the most part. Usually when we buy groceries we use canvas bags, but if we're running low on bags we just leave the canvas home for the week and re-stock. We fill about one brown grocery bag per week with kitchen trash, if that.

We have bears, so IMO a compost pile isn't a good idea here. We do give most of our foods scraps to the deer in the winter time though. They'll eat most anything, even the jalapeno cheese I had to throw out a couple weeks ago. I got some dirty looks for that one though.

 

[MommyTrap]

We live in a township that requires all trash to be in garbage bags! ugh! We do have a recycling program which I make good use of. I love it when I have more recycling than trash! We also have a compost pile but have decided not to put food scraps in it anymore because I just found out we have rats in our area! We do compost our yard waste though. So not to many bags for that. We are not aloud to burn. Big fine if you get caught. So needless to say I have to buy kitchen bags and some lg black bags for misc trash. I don't however buy bathroom bags I just use plastic grocery store bags.

 

[nvmommyx6]

We use the plastic grocery bags for the smaller trash bins, and I do buy large trash bags for the regular trash, but we have decided to cut the trash service out here, most of our trash is paper, which we burn, either outside in the burn barrel or in the wood stove to start fires. The food trash goes into a compost in the garden or into the chicken's pen. and we produce very little amounts of plastic or glass trash, there is no recycling here so that will enable me to have one can lined with a bag for what cannot be burned or eaten or composted!!

 

[Debbie-cat]

It is amazing how much garbage bags add up over the year! And all you do is throw them away! Good for you!

 

[fixer]

I too added up what we were spending on trash bags and was amazed at the total. At that time, I would just empty the garbage can on garbage day without thinking about it. Now, it must be FULL before I touch it. Dw always gets mad when I say "it will hold a little more" as I stuff it. And yes, there was that incident when a bag exploded on the kitchen floor on the way outside. Other than that, the new system has worked well and cut our usage by half. We don't by leaf bags since we have a brush pile in the back and we use grocery bags for the bathrooms. We also recycle all that we can.

 

[rainbowgc]

Our county requires recyclables to be in special blue bags. Huh?

 

[sabrelvssammy]

i have quit using garbage bags..in fact i just replaced the kitchen garbage can (tall kitchen size one) with a short bathroom one under the sink coz the amount of trash we 'don't' generate it was taking a few weeks to fill up and by then it was getting kinda 'funky'....so i am using the grocery bags too...by the time we get done recycling, composting, garb disp....we are generating a bag of trash every couple of months...(and it all seems to be that darn cat litter....ugh)... so as long as they continue to make grocery sacks i'm set (though i use my GREEN bags too....)....

 

[Judi Dial]

I use kitchen grocery bags, but I just tonight (!) said to DH that I wanted to get where we weren't any more.

Things I have done: we have no garbage disposal (we're on a septic system and a disposal increases how often you need to get your pumped). Anyway, that presented a problem, what do to with all the small, wet stuff?

For many years, we used milk/juice cartons and stapled them shut. Lately, we've been using grocery bags. I have a small camp pot (no handle, crimping lid) we line with the grocery bag.

I think I'll try the grocery bags route. If I line all the upstairs trashcans with them, that's probably a good start to getting DH used to them... Hmmmm. :idea:

Thanks for this topic!

Judi

 

[Mrs. Leeds]

We don't have trash service and from now on, I will not buy bags. I'm also trying to cut back on any plastic purchase. I recycle glass, tin cans, aluminum and plastic (milk cartons, etc). I compost everything that I can (including paper and cardboard now). Plastics that can't be recycled get rinsed out before going into the trash for burning (I know, I know). I just made my first batches of non-toxic cleaning and laundry supplies, so no more aerosol cans! ) What can't be taken care of in one of these ways usually gets hauled to our friend's house when we go there to visit. But it's not much, maybe a little bag once a month...and they're happy with the fresh eggs I take for a 'thank you'.
I just replaced our tall kitchen waste can with a small one that can use a grocery sack...maybe a paper sack? Small changes made gradually can still make a difference.
AND recycle stuff in blue plastic bags???? What's up with that? I know it's so they can identify what is recycleable, etc...but what we don't need is more plastic in the dump.

 

[mzpepper]

I too am trying to get away from the kitchen bags. I will have to be more aware of what goes into them.

NO food stuffs ever go into the garbage. Here is the heirarchy here. First if the dogs will eat it they get first choice (my dogs even eat broccoli) then if not the dogs, it goes to the chickens (they eat just about everything but not all) then anything left goes into the worm bin (everything else). I get free fertilizer from the chickens and the worm bin but I love my dogs so they get first crack at the good stuff.

BTW my worm bin is a Rubbermaid container with a top on it and vents put into the side and top for air. I have never had any problems with any pests getting into it. Not mice or rats or even raccoons.

 

[frugalfriend]

I have never bought kitchen trash bags, just use grocery bags. I don't want to pay for something I'm just going to throw away. :shrug2:

 

[MomToTwoBoys]

We have cut down considerably with the amount of plastic trash bags that we were using each week. First, it was the amount of wasted food going into the trash can that we finally realized we could make better use of. Instead of throwing the leftover food away, we save it and have a leftovers day at least once a week. We eat as much of the leftovers as we can, then toss the rest. That alone saved us about four trash bags per week!

Then we started recycling. Calgary has a fantastic recycling program and will be starting a curbside program sometime this year. For now, we use the large green recycling bins near Safeway. We fold all of our cardboard (I don't throw any away, ever!) and put the newspaper in plastic grocery bags in neat piles. We rinse and wash out the aluminum cans, plastics and glass bottles and recycle those. We re-use the plastic containers and glass bottles for homemade concoctions. For smaller trash cans, we line them with the bags from the toilet paper, paper towels, etc. We save the tissue boxes for folded plastic bags. DH takes his lunch to work in the plastic grocery bags. I also reuse my plastic grocery bags for when I bag my own groceries, along with environmentally safe and sturdy handled bags from the store that I purchased years ago. I have three purple bins from Superstore that I put all of my groceries in, as well.

We throw away maybe two or three bags of trash per week. Some weeks, we have more. However, we're doing a lot better than we were.

We can't get rid of our trash by not using plastic bags. I don't believe in burning papers (because it creates toxins in the air that harm the environment) and we don't compost yet. There are small kitchen composters that are pretty (check out Gaiam) and smaller backyard composters. The shredded paper can be used for other reasons and all paper should be either shredded for composting or recycled.

 

[Mavourneen]

I buy a large roll of 100 bags for about $5 from the dollar store. That last me about 9 months to a year, easily. I agree; I don't pay good money for something I'm just going to throw away. This alternative is actually less expensive than the grocery store with a coupon.

The dollar store bags aren't as sturdy as name brand bags, but they don't need to be. Since we recycle metal, plastic, and paper, that leaves very little else that actually gets to be "trash."

 

[Grayce]

We recycle everything we can here, paper, plastics #1-7 and cans. We compost certain food scraps (not meat, dairy or grease). We have a green bin program. In it goes almost everything else: any food scrap including meat, bones, oil, soiled paper like paper towel, tissues, napkins, cheesy pizza boxes, muffin cups and fast food cups and paper trays. Other things like popsicle sticks, toothpicks, wood ash, pet hair and dryer lint.

we are limited to one bag a week here but we usually don't have trouble sticking to it because we can recycle and compost so much. I do buy kitchen bags because I no longer get grocery bags from the store (we use re-usable bags) I don't go through kitchen bags very fast. Usually the garbage that I put out is mostly plastic bags from foods we have bought.

 

[lisettelovebug]

I also buy the Aldi's trashbags, they work really well. Unfortunately though we go through more than a bag a week. With 2 kids in diapers it doesn't help. lol. We change our garbage almost daily. We recycle what we can but our city has the crappiest recycle system ever!! They have no recycle bins, you have to find your own 5 gallon bin and then there are so many restrictions on how big the cardboard can be, what types of plastic they take (a lot of the ones we use they do not take), etc. We usually take ours with us when we go visit my parents and go to the dump near them where they have a recycle area as soon as you pull in. It's actually very handy to go there.

 

[Momtwo]

We use 1-2 tall kitchen garbage bags a week. I buy them on sale with coupons, ECB's from CVS or RR's from Walgreens.