Switch your trash bags and liners
Why This is Green
Trash is tricky. When it comes to collecting your nonrecyclable and noncompostable garbage, plastic bags are the norm. They’re made from petroleum, a nonrenewable resource. Reusing plastic bags from the grocery store is a good idea, but these are usually too small for most trashcans. Buying new plastic bags just for garbage doesn’t make much sense, but it’s often the only option. It’s best to avoid any bags manufactured with questionable chemicals to mask odor and make bags more flexible.
The greenest trash bags currently available are those made with recycled content. The next best option is biodegradable or compostable bags.
Biodegradable products are also tricky: they’re quite green if you can compost them—either at home or via your municipality or a commercial composter. In a landfill, they’re not really better than regular plastic. In order for something biodegradable to break down in a landfill, it needs access to a basic combination of air, water, light, microbes, and enzymes. These aren't readily available in an overstuffed landfill. If and when a biodegradable bag breaks down in a landfill, it creates methane, a very powerful greenhouse gas.
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How To
Seek out bags made with recycled plastic.
If you buy biodegradable bags, compost them and try to keep them out of landfills.
There’s an unfortunate amount of greenwashing in the world of biodegradable products. When reading labels, look for biobased content (like corn starch, though this may be genetically modified) and certification. If a claim strikes you as unrealistic, don’t buy the bags.
