Recycling carrier bags...

[jollytiddlywink]

So, does anyone know where it is possible to recycle old plastic shopping bags? I have had a look at the website for the council recycling centre behind Morrisons, and while they take old batteries, motor oil, washing machines and lots of other things, they don't take plastic bags--just PET and HDPE plastic bottles. Do any of the supermarkets take bags for recycling, or indeed does anywhere in town take them? Or I am condemned to sinning against the environment by having to throw the bags in the bin?
Cheers.

[RandomMusings]

I've often wondered about this - and as yet have been unable to find anywhere - part of the reason why I purchased a couple of folding reusable bags to take around with me - but invariably, as with anything, I sometimes leave them at home and as such have a not unsubstantial amount of plastic carrier bags stowed away in my kitchen.

It might be worth badgering the new Sustainability Officer to set up another couple of 'carrier bag recycling' days. What we did as part of last year's green week was stand outside Tesco for an afternoon handing people bags to reuse before they went in, in order to stop them taking new ones and start a small chain of recycling (reusing). This actually went rather well and we shifted an awful lot of carrier bags. Maybe there is potential to try and set something up semi-regularly along these lines and people can drop off their bags over a couple of days to be 're-distributed' by some willing environmentally friendly volunteers.

(Obviously this does not account for the bags that are not in a re-usable condition)

[zipporah]

Morrisons used to have a recycling bin for them in their entrance, but I don't know if that's still there (I also heard that supermarkets will take bags but then just dump them because they don't actually have anywhere to recycle them ... or something). How about using them as binbags? Not so practical for kitchen bins but it's not actually that much of a hassle emptying it every other day. I'd do it in my house but we already have multiple rolls of bin bags; I haven't decided what to do with our heap of carrier bags (obviously the simplest answer is just to not use the damn things, but all of my housemates do).

You can crochet them into reusable bags. Might not be your thing though.

[CheeseDaddy]

As far as I know you can still recycle them at Morrisons, there's a plastic bin by the door.

[Thalia]

Yep, there was still carrier bag recycling at morrisons last time i checked.