What to do with your Plastic Bags (Big T can’t take them anymore)

Wal-Mart has discontinued the program for schools to recycle plastic bags to raise money. We will continue to allow the students to recycle a plastic bag they may happen to have with them at Big T rather than throw it away, but we can’t take the volumes we’ve been receiving, as our school’s single-stream recycling program doesn’t accept plastic bags. (We will slowly take them to be re-used, so if you want any, let Mrs. Culhane or Ms. Amber know.)

Brainstorm with your child ways to keep plastic bags out of our landfills. Encourage them to ask questions of retailers, friends and neighbors to figure out what stores and other people do to reduce their impact.

How to keep plastic bags out of the landfill (in order of preference):
1) If you can carry what you bought, tell the cashier you don’t need a bag!
2) Take reusable cloth bags to the store so you don’t have to use disposable bags of any sort. You can often find cloth bags at a thrift store, or maybe you could make your own.
3) See if the store has boxes they’ve received merchandise in, and pack up your groceries or other products in there. You can recycle the box at home, which is what the store probably would do anyway.
4) If you have to take a new bag, ask for paper. It is a renewable resource and can be easily recycled, or if needed, composted.
5) Re-use the plastic bags you already have (you can double and triple bag them!) until they absolutely have to be recycled. If you have a lot of plastic bags in good condition, search for a thrift store or other place that may be able to reuse the bags another time.
6) Remember that recycling is the last step to keep things out of the landfill. Most grocery stores have a place to recycle plastic bags. Please don’t put them in your home recycling, as they get caught in the sorting machines at the recycling facilities.

If you have any questions about recycling, reusing or reducing please send an email to lamba@thompson.k12.co.us or leave a note in Ms. Amber’s box. Thanks for doing your part to keep plastic bags out of the landfill!