Thread: A new kind of rubbish bag

DUNNO about that one. SWMBO would never permit it in the kitchen. In the shop I have two trash cans, one recycle, one trash. When I roll out the dust bins out for pick-up I just dump the appropriate trash can into the dust bin.

I think it is good idea and one well worth testing.

There are questions that need to be answered,

1. How much does it hold and how often does it need to be replaced?
2. Does it tear easily?
3. Does it need support on the bottom and along the side of the bag while in use?
3a. Does it need support on the bottom and along the side of the bag during emptying?

I think these question are a good start and could give a good indication on proof of concept.


Just on a side note and I certainly don't want to digress too much from your thread. Here in Albury council area there has been a change to how the bin system works. Red bin is for hard(general) rubbish, yellow bin for recycle item(paper and bottles) and the green bin used not only for garden waste but also for vegetable, bones, food scraps etc. It is generally defined by anything that was once living can be placed in this bin as it is basically been mulched.

Of course this is great idea if you do not have access to mulching your own waste. One thing thou when we tried mulching it brought in mice so now we bury the vegetables scraps. And we have mice baits around the house for the little buggers to eat something.

Check out the charity recycle shops for old Tupperware spaghetti containers - just the right size to suit the plastic bags used for bread. SWMBO may accept them in the kitchen, as long as she doesn't store it away while full.

Your concept is OK. We had a plastic container that was made specifically to take the bread bags and after many years of service threw ours out only last year when it was looking a bit grubby. The top fitted into the bag and had a lift up lid. Every time we go into a collectibles/retro type shop we look for a replacement.

The only issue I see with this is the use of plastic bags in general to contain rubbish. The accumulation of plastic in the environment will become a huge issue in the future I think.

While it is very difficult to avoid plastic - like bread bags - we try to send all soft plastics for recycling, through the supermarket plastic bag bins. It is my understandings that all soft plastics can be recycled that way, not just plastic shopping bags.

In our home, we try very hard to separate things so we have very little hard waste for the red bin. We now wrap the hard waste in old newspapers, which will rot away in landfill. We mulch and compost all the kitchen and garden waste that we can and put all the paper, cardboard and hard plastics in the yellow bin. We rarely put out the green bin (for garden waste) because we recycle most of it on-site.

My biggest problem is my workshop waste. I can feed some sawdust and shavings into the compost, but average about one large garbage bag of dust and shavings every two weeks.

Having said all that, I love the idea of a wooden gadget to foster at least second-use. I would be interested to see the final skin and bag attachment solutions.


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I watched the War on Waste on the ABC and it was a real eye opener when it comes to the use of plastic bags and plastics in general.
If the bag is going to be filled and then emptied into a compost bin I think the concept is very good, just don't dispose of the contents in the bag.

Originally Posted by Christos

1. How much does it hold.

About a loaf of bread's worth would be my best estimate

Originally Posted by bruceward51

It is my understandings that all soft plastics can be recycled that way, not just plastic shopping bags.

The test is to scrunch the plastic up - if it returns to shape then into the general recycling with it, otherwise it goes into the soft plastics bag. We used to (usually) create two shopping bags of waste from the house every week. Now it's one bag of waste and one bag of soft plastics that goes to the Redcycle bin at Coles. We wash the soft plastic sealers from cheese etc etc etc if they need it, and let them air dry and then into the bag. Some soft plastics still goes to the bin if it is not worth either the effort or the water to wash it.

Originally Posted by bruceward51

I can feed some sawdust and shavings into the compost, but average about one large garbage bag of dust and shavings every two weeks.

Well I can't see why that can't go into the green bins (I'm in BMCC too) unless it's MDF dust of course. I did ring Richmond waste about this but I got what sounded like a fairly airy response of "No" without any decent reason or reasoning whatsoever. It was suggested that it go into a plastic bag and then into general waste (into the bag so dust doesn't go everywhere). Most of the time I take my clean sawdust (ex-MDF) to the Community Gardens for them to use. The piles are always diminished.

Originally Posted by FenceFurniture

About a loaf of bread's worth would be my best estimate
"No" without any decent reason or reasoning whatsoever.

I have thought a lot about the green waste bin for sawdust and shavings. I think I got the same answer when I asked and I am sure that there has been little thought given. I suspect that dust would be the main issue. At my local Men's Shed we have had issues from our gardening blokes about the finer dust from the dust collectors when applied as mulch. So the now goes (in plastic) in our waste collection.

With apologies to Jeremy for a temporary hijack....

If dust is the problem, then surely we could mitigate that by wetting it before it goes into the bin?

I wouldn't worry too much about plastic into the recycle stream as it looks like the whole thing is about to come to a screaming halt. https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/...04-p4zdau.html

Of course our forward looking government will save the situation just as it has with reducing emissions and revving up the alternative energy industry.

But it's still better to accumulate it rather than just dump it - projects like this one will bear fruit at some point (just like Solar batteries WILL be viable soon-ish):
Rubbish is being transformed into roads, thanks to one Melbourne company - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Originally Posted by Christos

It is generally defined by anything that was once living can be placed in this bin as it is basically been mulched.

Ooooh! I know one or two people that fit that category. I have just never known how to dispose of them before.

Regards
Paul

PS: No problem with the bread bag other than the small size. There are larger bags such as dog/cat food and other critters bags such as horses. I appreciate not everybody in suburbia has access to these. As SWMBO is on an anti plastic crusade at this moment I can see I will have to deal with the fallout

Regards
Paul

Originally Posted by Bushmiller

Ooooh! I know one or two people that fit that category. I have just never known how to dispose of them before......

I attended a meeting where one of the representatives of the garbage collecting company was giving an update and she jokingly mention that body parts are not allowed. Then I thought what if you had access to the hospital waste disposal system your dilemma could be partly resolved. Maybe I should be a crime writer or something else?

Originally Posted by Christos

I attended a meeting where one of the representatives of the garbage collecting company was giving an update and she jokingly mention that body parts are not allowed. Then I thought what if you had access to the hospital waste disposal system your dilemma could be partly resolved. Maybe I should be a crime writer or something else?

There was an incident not that long ago at the Summerhill tip in Newcastle, where medical waste including body parts were accidentally sent to the tip. Led to the inevitable jokes about it costing an arm and a leg to take a trailer load of rubbish there

The bread bag thing is an interesting idea, but I don't get the plastic bread bags anyway as I prefer to buy a loaf and slice it myself, and I get them in paper bags because I like crusty bread. Really, we have a waste problem because of so-called convenience packaging that in many cases is unnecessary.