Storing plastic bags

They are always threatening to charge for plastic bags so I make sure I have plenty.

My rubbish goes in a pedal bin with a lid under the sink and I put 2 supermarket bags in there for the rubbish. One isn't any good as they put air holes in them.

If I didn't do this, I would have to buy pedal bin liners. So much for saving the planet.

petallus sorry only just remembered about this thread. My bag store thingamajig is stuck to the inside of the kitchen cupboard. Hope you're happy with it when yours arrives.

Our council does supply us with a dinky little bag to put batteries in for recycling, but there are absolutely no indications as to where old light bulbs should go, so yes they do go in with the general rubbish.

Always shocked to see people in the UK putting batteries and light-bulbs in the bin- it is striclty forbidden here because they are so toxic- and we have no landfill, only incineration (where toxins from the above can be released in the atmosphere) - in landfill they are a timebomb.

I think they are toxic because they contain mercury. We used to play with mercury in the lab at school!

I must admit I did stockpile the old lightbulbs when I heard about the legislation coming in - the government generally get everything a*se about face and I suspected they would do the same with this and they did.

But it's so difficult to get hold of the old fashioned light bulbs!!! All the major stores such as B&Q, Homebase etc. don't seem to stock them any more.

Absolutely Lilygran. I did my bit and bought the exhorbitantly priced light bulbs and they are useless; I had to use three lamps instead of the one (sometimes two) that I would normally put on. I went straight back to the old fashioned light bulbs. They really don't think things through do they. And then we find out that you have to dispose of the carefully as they are toxic if the glass breaks!

And they give off a slight flicker which gives me a headache.
(The light bulbs, not the bags.)

You're right, Holly. Same thorough planning that has led to insisting on us using only light bulbs which don't give out enough light to read by. So you use twice as many.

a fabric tube with elastic at either end. It hangs behind the kitchen door. I put plastic bags in at the top and take them out at the bottom.

I bought something similar from a car boot sale (a woman had a craft stall and this was one of the items that she made) and it works very well.

I don't refuse carrier bags at supermarkets because they are just too handy to have around - I use them when clearing the garden of dog 'droppings', line the pedal bins in the bathrooms and bedrooms, empty the vacuum cleaner into them and probably other things that I can't remember at the moment. If I didn't use them, I'd only buy a roll of plastic bags from the supermarket instead.

The world will be filled with plastic confetti instead of whole plastic bags!

When my mother came to live with us, we were clearing out her house and found several big plastic bags apparently full of confetti. The biodegradable bags had quite efficiently degraded even though in a nonbiodegradable bag in a cupboard. All the 'confetti' was charged so it stuck to the carpets, the furniture, the curtains and us. Had to be picked off a bit at a time.

To add. Apparently the biodegradable bags need to be exposed to the air to biodegrade. If they go to landfill and get buried they do not.

I shove mine into the cupboard under the sink. The dog goes for a walk each day and I usually use one up when out with her. The do tend to accumulate though. When we first got our recycle bin you could put them in that, but the rules have changed and now you can't. The British biodegradable bags do shred themselves after a couple of years. I had some yarn stored in one inside my work bag, and when I lifted it out it fell to bits.

To avoid them going into the waste where they are a major cause of pollution and danger to wildlife then you can put them into a special bin at the supermarket. They may not have these in England yet but they do in Wales, so they should be introduced soon elsewhere.

Plastic bags for life are called that because, if they get a hole in or handles break, they can be exchanged at the supermarket for a new one and they will dispose of the old one.

I did notice that, when I stored something in a drawer in a plastic bag which had come from Australia that I found the bag a couple of years later shredded into tiny pieces. I'm not sure if the British bags do that now, I hope so because they are such an environmental hazard.

I store my plastic bags in a bigger, stronger plastic bag. I roll them up tight, around my fingers, and sort of shove one end into the middle so they stay rolled up. Then shut the whole thing in a cupboard.
P.s. I do use re-usable ones for big weekly shop.

I tie each one in a knot (to make them safe for little ones) and stuff them in a plastic carrier bag hanging on the back of the utility room door. It's free!

Like others I try to avoid having them at all and with supermarket deliveries I opt for no bags. And as I am on the Welsh border and deliveries come from there, where bags are charged for, I would have to pay for them if I had them.

Aren't we a virtuous lot!?

I agree suebailey1 that is what I use mine for. Also having a cat, it is handy using them to carry her used litter downstairs double bagged to the outside bin. I also shop on line and frequently find one item in one bag so at present I have a surfeit.

The present bags are so thin that if used for shopping again, I have found I have had to double or triple bag them so that I do not have an accident.

I've ordered the ikea one.

One way I get plastic bags is when I order from Waitrose online? They don't stint.

I put rubbish which can go in the non recycle bin in them.

We're not allowed to put plastic bags in our recycling bins here sue

I have one called the recycling bin! These bags are useless after one use so into the recycling they go. I use a jute bag for market shopping as the handles don't cut in and they are much stronger. I get these as cast offs from my daughter who seems to have loads of them and plastic bags which fall out of her cupboards and I get rid of them when I visit.

I have an Ikea storage thing on the wall in my freezer room. I always take my own bags to the supermarket and carry a nylon one that folds into it's own small pouch in my handbag.
If I didn't save plastic bags, what would I empty the cat litter into ?

I have the Ikea one the same as Grannyknot's. I've had it for years, it is not freestanding but is on the inside of a tall cupboard door.
We don't have free plastic bags in Wales, but you will need somewhere to store the 'bags for life' which are useful especially at this time of year for collecting (and giving away) apples, etc.

The bags we use for the supermarket are the more sturdy type (we use plastic ones for meat and fish, as we can wash those) and I carry a couple of cotton ones in my handbag.

Meant to say, I like your home-made bag dispenser, rubysong. Simple, but tidy!