Top Ten Creative Ways to Reuse Your Plastic Produce Bags
Elizabeth Gleich
Ever wondered what to do with the plastic bags in which you receive your vegetables every week? We gardeners were at a loss, too. We want to care for this earth as much as we can (considering we're knee deep in it every day), and we want you to be able to do the same. After some research, I found some shocking statistics about recycling plastic bags:
· Plastic bags do not biodegrade. Light breaks them down into smaller and smaller particles that contaminate the soil and water and are expensive and difficult to remove (Clean Air Council).
· Americans throw away approximately 100 billion plastic bags per year
· Of those plastic bags, 1% are recycled.
· It takes 1000 years for plastic bags to break down.
According to a 2006 United Nations report, about 10 percent of all plastic produced every year ends up in the ocean, and about 70 percent of it settles on the ocean floor.
(Read more at http://www.suite101.com/content/say-no-to-plastic-bags-a20241#ixzz1RoWoTGCi).
Feeling helpless? No need. Here are TEN creative ways to reuse and recycle those plastic bags. There are more ways than you think!
1. Donate them to food pantries, libraries, day-care centers, or hospitals that take them.
2. Reuse them for produce. Bring the bags to the grocery store and fill them with vegetables or fruit. Make sure to clean them after use and to hang them to dry.
3. When traveling, use plastic bags in your suitcases for dirty underclothes. Place your wet swim suits or other wet clothing inside plastic bags until you arrive home and can launder or hang them out to dry.
4. Place food inside a plastic bag before packing in a lunch bag. Even "airtight" containers can leak, especially if the lid is not on tightly.
5. Use for organization in a deep freezer.
6. Carry a couple bags with you while you walk. You can use it to pick up trash and then dispose.
7. Hanging Planter. There are expensive plastic bags on the market which are just plastic with some holes speared in them. You can hang the plant anywhere. Just use two or three plastic bags together for strength and then fill with dirt and plants. Water regularly.
8. Line a cracked pot or flower vase. Frozen vegetable bags are perfect for this, given that they're very thick and the perfect size. Slip the bag down into a cracked vase that's still pretty enough to display but leaky enough to be a water hazard.
9. Fuse them into "cloth": Got an iron and some old paper? You can make cloth-like crafting material out of your bags, also. (Check out how at http://craftingagreenworld.com/2008/06/16/plasticbagstory)
10. Cut into strips to make into a washable placemat or rug. (Check out how at:http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/fiber_arts/108403)
Happy recycling!
.
Did it feel like you didn't get as many veggies last week?
My name is Lindsay Ganong and I am a senior nutrition major in the Didactic Program of Dietetics at CSB. I am from western Wisconsin, and I anticipate some trips to family members' homes and to my grandparents' cabins this summer to relax on the boat with a book or cooking magazine, water skiing, swimming and cooking over the campfire. 
Common Ground Garden is a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm, where members purchase a share of vegetables and each week during the farm season receive a bountiful box of fresh produce. We pride ourselves on producing fresh, clean, healthful food picked at the peak of flavor and nutrition. As much as we are able, we grow our vegetables without the use of any chemical herbicides, pesticides or fertilizers. We use cover crops, rotations, compost and ingenuity to produce your food in a way that's healthy for you and for the community. When necessary for pest control or to combat disease, we use only products approved for organic gardening.