Every time something comes in the mail there winds up being a lot of trash left over from the packaging and shipping supplies. Granted, I want what I ordered to be well protected so that it can get from the supplier to me without sustaining any damage, and we all know that the delivery people are not so much concerned with “this side up” and “fragile”.
Therefore, it stands to reason that what I ordered needs to be carefully and securely wrapped. Even if the delivery people are the most gentle individuals on the planet, the elements of nature are still at work, and freak accidents do not discriminate. So of course I want my order to be protected in plastic shipping bags before it’s put in a box. The question is: what do I do with the plastic shipping bags when its all said and done? The boxes are easy enough. We all have plenty of uses for boxes.
My mother used to never throw away a box. She had amassed an enormous collection under her basement stairs, of all shapes and sizes. Literally. These days I save all boxes to use as kindling for bonfires, or let the kids destroy them. A good box will keep a child occupied for hours, and I will take that every chance I get. But not so with the plastic shipping bags. We certainly can’t allow the kids to play with those.
And yet, there has to be some way to recycle them. What a waste to just toss them in the trash. Here is a short list of a few different ideas:
- The adhesive back reclosable bags, the ones which are stuck to the front of the box and hold the packaging slip, I reuse and tape to the front of my own storage boxes. I mark the contents of the box on an index card and put the index card in the clear baggie.
- The plastic merchandise bags have many uses, and I’m sure those are obvious enough to come up with on your own.
- I use any and all bubble bags come Christmas time to wrap ornaments and fragile Christmas decorations in.
These are just a couple of ideas, but hopefully I have gotten the ball rolling for you to be able to come up with some of your own. While most plastic shipping bags are designed with a specific purpose in mind, they can still be recycled and put to use around the household.
