A recent article highlights an amazing opportunity for students to educate consumers about the importance of proper recycling (“Recycle Corps interns guide communities toward a sustainable tomorrow,” July 26, The Herald). However, it misses a key detail regarding plastic grocery bags and other plastic film products.
While most curbside programs cannot accept them, plastic film shopping bags continue to be easily recycled through the industry-pioneered store takeback program. Usually located at the front of the store, these bins found at retailers like Safeway, Albertsons, and Fred Meyer can help ensure a circular end life for bags and other stretchy plastic film products.
In 2021, over 1.1 billion pounds of plastic film were collected for recycling. Of that total, over 264 million pounds of plastic retail bags and film were collected through the store takeback program, a 7.8 percent increase from the year prior.
While recycling grocery bags helps the industry source the postconsumer recycled content that goes into the bags in the market, recycled bags and other film can be made into composite lumber, playground equipment, railroad ties, and more.
So the next time you head to the grocery store, check and see if you have some extra bags or other stretchy plastic films under your sink or in the pantry and bring them back to the store; reducing your footprint and helping America’s bag manufacturers meet our sustainability goals is that simple.
Jake Lowenstein
American Recyclable Plastic Bag Alliance
Washington, D.C.
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