*** Updated November 2018 to reflect information on the nationwide plastic bag ban ***
Bags, Bags, Bags, so many bags and I’m not talking about the ones under our eyes!
A common theme I’ve noticed amongst my clients, friends, and myself (up until recently), is that we don’t want to part with BAGS! I’m talking about plastic bags, shopping bags, paper bags, and the newer material bags that Coles and Woolworths now sell to us.
Why do we all feel the need to keep all these plastic bags?
Well the excuses I’ve been given are:
- They’re useful and I might use them some time….
- It seems like a waste to throw them out, can’t I reuse them somehow or recycle them?
- And since the free single-use bags are banned across nearly all of Australia… I paid for them, I’m not throwing them out! Or if I need more in the future, they won’t be free!
Well, we won’t deny that they aren’t handy right? We can use them as bin liners, to carry things from place to place, they’re great for passing things onto someone else. Sure, there’s no denying it, they’re great. But how many do we actually need to keep?
Ideas for what to do with your hoard of bags
Hear are some ideas for what you can do with your hoard of bags, if you’ve found you too suffer from this quickly spreading illness!
- Recycle plastic bags from supermarkets at Woolworths/Coles. They have plastic garbage bins at the front of most of their shops for you to dump your unwanted bags. They get recycled into more bags.
- Recycle your paper bags in your general recycling.
- Save money by using the nice non-descript or blank paper bags as present bags. (If you’re artistic, or you have kids, you could decorate them). Add them to your wrapping paper stash!
- Ask your local charity shop if they need the bags for their customers.
- Have a few spare material bags in your car (and get into the habit of remembering to bring them into the supermarket) so you don’t buy more!
Food for thought anyway. Consider how many you actually need. How much room are your bags taking up in your house? What could be in that spot instead?
Contact me or comment below to share your ideas on how to use your bags or if to you’d like advice on another area of organising.
