Who uses free carrier bags instead of buying bin-liners?

Question

I never buy bin-liners and always use a carrier bag for rubbish. Am I alone or one of many? Bet the bin-liner manufacturers can't wait for supermarkets to stop giving out free bags!!

Please don't see this as anti using cloth/ heavy duty shopping bags, I am a great believer in recycling (I more than fill my silver re cycling wheelie bin every fortnight and am an avid freecycler).

Additional Details

Well I'm obviously not alone!!

Ghost - do they take any longer than bin-liners to bio degrade? Out of curiosity what do you use for your kitchen/household bins?

Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker

More carrier bags nowadays are biodegradable than binliners, so I think it's an excellent idea to recycle carrier bags for use as binliners.

I use carrier bags for all of my small bins - reusing them until they need throwing out. They are very useful and last for ages when used with dry waste.

I use swing bin liners rather than black bin liners for my household bin, as I live on my own so only produce a small bag of waste. It would be wasteful to use a whole black binliner for half a bag of waste each week.

I also use the oversize carrier bags that you sometimes get as rubbish sacks.

Again, as carrier bags are more likely to be biodegradable than binliners, and there is a bigger choice of those than of custom-made binliners, I think that it will be worse for the rubbish tip when free carrier bags are banned.... though I am in favour of switching from plastic to paper free bags for shopping... now all we need is sturdy paper waste bin liners to be invented so that we can be environmentally friendly aswell as hygenic...

Ary.

Asker's Rating:

Asker's Comment:

So many people using plastic bags instead of binliners.
The bags I use are Sainsbury's carriers... they are very thin.....thinner that purpose made binliners so must surely decompose quicker.
I'm going to buy shares in binliner companies when the supermarkets stop giving them away!

Answer 2

i do for my small bins

Answer 3

Jade Bedford does

Answer 4

i do and i agree

Answer 5

i buy bin liners for the big bin in the kitchen. i put a carrier bag in all the small bins in the house, and then when full, i tie these and bin them!
i always recycle when i can, and am considering composting at the end of my garden, but need a collection to get me started....1 bit of orange peel isn't going to get me far!

Answer 6

I was just having this dicussion with my wife the other day. We always use plastic carrier bags in the bin. However, I have bought a couple of the cloth carrier bags, so now our bin bag reserve has diminished. We have decided to go 50/50 with the plastic/cloth carrier bags, to keep our bin bag reserve. Trading one evil for another (that you pay for) is not only illogical, but just plain dumb.

Answer 7

I do, as I can't bring myself to throw them away. I've bought a shopping bag recently though - I can see myself running out and will have to buy bin liners then.

Answer 8

I recycle as much as i can, tins, paper etc the veggies goes into our compost heap and i use the carrier bags for the rest of the rubbish. Same as you , so you are not alone.:)

Answer 9

do you know how long your "bin liner" carrier bags take to decompose in a land fill! its a bit hypocritical especially when you are such an avid recycler!

yes they take longer than bin liners , the plastic is much thicker.

I don't use bin liners because I dont have a kitchen bin - my rubbish is recycled - papers , glass , tins etc all go into the relevent bin in the yard

Answer 10

yes for the little bins....technically thats recycling, becuase i use them atleast twice before i use them for the bin. if i bought bin liners, that would be even more plastic and it would cost me more too, so whats the point?

i dont think many people use bin liners for small bins....i was in tesco the other day and even they had a tesco carrier bag in their bin.....lol

Answer 11

Carrier bags are too small even though I recycle everything I can. And our bin men will only take black bin bags.

Answer 12

i always use free carrier bags, they fit my bin perfectly!

the carrier bags i use are 100% degradable, they start to degrade in approximately 9 months and about 3 years to degrade completely.

so i think it must be greener to use these than ordinary bin liners! :)

Answer 13

I do this as well, but i suppose we shouldnt as when these end up in landfill they lie there for years to come.I do like using the paper handled bags though for my newspapers etc, which means i can fill the bag and dump everything into my blue bin.

Answer 14

hi
yes i do.

Answer 15

I do

Answer 16

I bring home my shopping in plastic bags once in a while, then use them for cleaning up dog poo in the back yard. Usually I use green bags though.