Plastic Bags with recycle numbers

[vonelftinhaus.livejournal.com]

I know soon plastic bags themselves will be phased out from all stores, larger first then small, before the end of the year and these bags wear a recycle triangle. But also increasingly companies are shipping goods with the plastic air filled bags to protect the shipped products (like amazon) which also sport the cool recycling triangle. My question is what is the city policy on the shipping bags and other plastic like bags (paper towel,toilet paper) that are sporting the recycling triangles - can we just throw them in the recycling bin with everything else? I did use The Waste Wizard but it seemed to generalize the plastic bags and not include the number icons; I feel like if it has a recycle icon I want to be able to put it somewhere other than the trash.

Comments

[ron_newman]

I'm pretty sure the answer is no, because plastic bags mess up the mixed recycling stream.

Take them to a plastic-bag recycling bin at a supermarket instead. I know that Star Market, Market Basket, and Whole Foods all have such bins.

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

This is what I have been doing.

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

Yeah -- stuff one bag with all the others, and when it's full, tie it off and put it in the plastic-bag recycling bin. They've got some system that doesn't care which plastic the bags are made of.

[paradoox.livejournal.com]

I'll point out that, IIRC, it is only in Somerville, Cambridge, Brookline, and Newton that SOME plastic bags are being phased out and only for SOME stores. I'm pretty sure all the towns have exemptions for small businesses and take out and other food service. Also, some stores like Micro Center in Cambridge have gone to reusable plastic bags.

[vonelftinhaus.livejournal.com]

Thank you everyone for the info - between our household and the 4 that live upstairs we get a fair amount of deliveries and they all come with the plastic air filled cushioning now. We will just collect them and other plastic "bags" and bring them down all at once from time to time - like we do with the styrofoam.

Speaking of styrofoam the city guy working the last collection said to call 311 to request more frequent/spread over the year collections - is that the best place to call or is there a city department that I should call to get the request in more directly. Though it was noted in another post there is a company ( in Charlestown I believe) that takes it also, but obviously bringing it to them at there location

[mem-winterhill.livejournal.com]

What I've done with those packing bubbles is save them up and drop them off at the UPS store. They reuse them as packing material then. They've always let me drop them off.

[rozhinka.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the tip!