Our city trash management says trash in the waste totes must be bagged, so I use the 13 gallon bags. We also re-use plastic bags and Amazon bags for trash like banana peels and for cat litter scooping.

It's just unfortunate there is no good solution and what actually gets recycled is minimal. They actually have local PSA's not to put any type of clamshell container in the recycling. So, any plastic produce or takeout container must go in the trash.

You have a trash pick-up service? Right? I am not sure what you are asking.

We recycle as much as possible, food waste mostly goes in the disposal, other stuff goes directly into the trash can awaiting weekly pickup.

Are you saying that you do not want to use any plastic bags? Unfortunately we use one per week. This is in our kitchen trash can. That bag then goes into our weekly pickup can.

Same - one large plastic kitchen garbage bag per week. I can just imagine garbage flying all over when the garbage truck picks up the can and dumps it if the trash wasn't bagged. As it is recycling is blowing around half the time. I remember my mother using paper grocery bags. I thought about using them when I used to get paper grocery bags but we end up with wet garbage that would seep through paper. Now that I bring my own reusable bags I don't have the overabundance of paper bags so no need to find a use for those. Plastic bags aren't outlawed here yet so I also use those for the cat litter scooping - couple bags a week.

Our guidelines states one thing:

All refuse must be bagged and deposited into covered, lightweight containers not to exceed 32-gallon capacity.

So I suppose I could use paper bags, but they don't close up well.

The non-kitchen receptacles are lined with whatever plastic bags have come into the house, usually we empty the trash but the bag stays in for a while, because it's mostly "dry" trash.

Kitchen trash goes in the bag that lined the recycling bin the previous week. We just don't have an effective space to clean the bin thoroughly every week (and besides, they both have little splits in the bottom so stuff could leak without a liner.)

Most weeks, we actually have only two plastic liner bags in the trash for the whole week. Oh, and two small ones reused from drugstore purchases for the cat scoops.

DLM, you could line your kitchen can with a flattened cereal box or the like. You can't recycle the cardboard afterwards, though, because it's contaminated; I wonder if you could compost it, or would it contaminate the compost?

Food trash goes down the garbage disposal a lot of the time. Living in the mountains here, we have a septic system that gets pumped out as needed. The rest goes into a large rolling trash can for weekly pickup. Things haven’t changed as yet, and so we’re required to use a large plastic trash bag inside that trash receptacle. And, because of our bears, coyotes, and mountain lions being attracted to any trash smell, we need to keep our (heavy duty) trash can inside our garage, lid on, until the morning of trash pickup. The alternative is not pretty! We also have a separate trash can for recyclable pickup. I wash every food container with soap and hot water before putting in there, as no large trash bag is required for recyclables, EXCEPT for the paper from our shredders. We use about one of the required smallish clear plastic bags a week for that. As for composting, as much as I’d love to, out here it really attracts bears, coyotes, skunks, pack rats, mice, etc. We have enough of their visits already, so there’s no way I can safely compost!

We could have a weekly pick-up but opted not to so our situation is a little different. Our county runs a refuse center that DH is quite fond of (as only an engineer and geek could be!) so we bring everything there about 1/month since it's close to where we work out. It's a big clean facility with huge containers that are on a lower level than the vehicle pull up area. So you pull your car/truck in, garbage goes in specified containers and you just toss your bags over the hip high railing into the open top. Recyclables are similar, but glass needs to be separated from the other recyclables and none of that can be bagged. They also have areas for cooking oil, motor oil, electronics, appliances and scrap metal.

In the meantime, everything gets emptied from our kitchen to the garage every couple of days. I do compost but we do not have a garbage disposal so it can get stinky if not emptied at least that often. Then the paper grocery bags filled with whatever go into contractor sized plastic garbage bags in the garage - I do hate that we have to do that but there is no option. I would just prefer not to put smaller plastic bags inside those large ones and since my paper bag supply is dependent on my grocery shopping habits, I was wondering what others do. Seems the writing is on the wall that I'll be washing out the unlined kitchen can at some point. I carry a reusable bag in my purse at all times now and avoid plastic bags from any store - I'll carry things out in my bare hands first.

We use a plastic bag for the kitchen waste bin. All bathroom trash gets consolidated into the kitchen bag on trash pick-up day, so we use one 13-gallon plastic bag per week. One more than I would like to use, but I haven't found a better solution.

I was hoping someone knew of a more environmentaly friendly method that had escaped my notice. We (the universal we) are at a point where we know more about what we should do than we have the ability to actually do, unfortunately.

I buy compostable or biodegradable plastic bags for the trash can liners in the kitchen. It's the only wastebasket I line. Plastic grocery bags are banned here and we must pay if we want a paper bag at the store. Most everyone brings their own reusable totes when they shop.

I use a reusable handled shopping tote in my utility room for recylables and just rinse it out or launder it as needed. It doesn't get too dirty because I wash anything that needs it before I toss it in there. And it gets emptied to the outside bin once or twice a week.

We use compostable bags for the kitchen. Recycling goes under the sink in a plastic (I know--the irony lol) trash can that has to get cleaned out every so often...from there it goes out to the big can in the garage...

I should add we don't have to bag our recycling. That can be loose, and they actually don't want it bagged. We shop online at Harris Teeter and they give us the paper bags for that, which we do recycle.

Normally, for trash, we have 1-2 tall bags per week plus other small bags.

We have this recycling bin in the kitchen and we empty it out to the recycling cart when it fills.

Container Store Recycling Bin

Unfortunately paper trash bags, ahem, leak. AND what they leak is nasty and hard to clean up, without having the plastic bags.

I do compost what I can, without having unwanted critters moving in on my territory.

It would be great to find a good solution.

DLM I forgot to answer your original question. I am still struggling with the plastic issue. Like you, I carry a reusable bag at all times and will not accept a plastic bag at a store. I also wont take left overs from a restaurant that has styrofoam or plastic containers. I will bring an empty container from home if it is just DH and I or close friends :)

I recently got rid of the plastic produce bags by purchase mesh cloth ones, and solid cloth ones for bulk bin items like oats and nuts.

But, the kitchen trash can still has a plastic bag. The compostable plastic bags arent better from what I have read as they dont break down in the landfill. I've changed my goal from getting rid of it to using less bags. If I can only use one a month, I think I can live with that. Reducing non-recyclables, non-compostables is hard. You have to be ever-vigilant or something sneaks in.

localeater, I wish we had a place like that, here. Where we used to live, we did, but it wasn't as organized....

I would enjoy going to the dump :) (probably not something you hear every day....and especially not here!)

We recently went from being able to recycle virtually everything to recycling only clean cardboard, cereal type boxes, glass bottles and plastic jugs. Can't recycle paper egg cartons, shredded paper, plastics, or metal. We can take metal to the transfer station-others have described theirs and ours is like that. Used motor oil, electronics, scrap metal, etc. Apparently we shipped our recycling overseas and they won't take it any more.

So it breaks my heart to throw away stuff I used to carefully recycle. And to think I was going to take the Master Recycler course! I try to reduce and reuse as much as possible now.

We have curbside recycle, garbage and lawn debris pickup, and they provide covered rolling bins. Recycling is every other week. No requirements to bag things-so we can just put things in the cans. I use 13 gallon plastic bags in the kitchen-unfortunately we have a lot of waste, with the cats and DH's work, so we have 2 large cans each week and our recycling is overlowing.

I use small bags for lining the non-wet cans (bathrooms, my office, bedroom) and I also bought a package of very small bags-about 4 gallons-for cat boxes. Our town has banned single use plastic bags so I try to reuse whatever plastic bags come with things. I've always done that anyway-but it's even more prized to get a bag in something.

Our local garbage goes to an incinerator. Surrounding towns go to landfills. I have spoken with landfill managers and apparently the trash bags for household use break down pretty quickly under the heat and pressure in landfills. Yes, I know they're petroleum products, but there is a lot of other really nasty stuff in landfills. The water (leachate) in newer landfills is treated and released to streams. It's actually cleaner than the stream it discharges to! Waste management has come a long way-but there is a LONG way to go.

Localeater, we also use a transfer station, which seem to run a lot like yours (not sure if they have a dog policy though... I have cats anyway...)

Ours is open Saturday and Sunday mornings in the winter, and Wednesday evening and Sunday morning in the summer.

Plastic recycling is much more restrictive up here in MA (at least this town) than it was back down in CT, so until I sell my old home, I bring much of my recyclables back down to CT to send them on their farewell journey.

I too have been around the block with this issue of trying to minimize plastic. I investigated trying to find large plastic bags made out of recycled plastic. That's kind of a misnomer. I don't think that any of these bags are actually made out of post consumer plastic, rather maybe just waste from plastic plants. But anyway, I have some and they are quite inferior in strength to what I would normally buy. Also investigated the biodegradable ones. They are also thin and inferior. I also investigated trying to find suitable paper bags for my trash bins but couldn't find the right sizes. I make do by trying to make the plastic bags I do use last as long as possible. We have a long way to go as a society on this issue. Classic case where it is going to take more than just individual action. I went out of my way to stop using plastic containers for food, in favor of glass, which is more recyclable, but then my state completely stopped taking glass . . . If there are no good markets for this stuff, it won't happen through free enterprise alone. Our one free enterprise recycling facility is on the verge of going out of business now.