SOLUTIONS

You pick up your freshly cleaned clothes from the dry cleaners and remove the thin plastic bag that wrapped them. Like many plastic films around the house, you might have trouble deciding whether to throw this packaging in the trash or the recycling bin.

Dry cleaning bags are recyclable! Most dry cleaning bags are made of polyethylene (PE), the same plastic commonly used to make plastic shopping bags and other flexible films. Dry cleaning bags are usually clean and dry, so they can be collected with other recyclable household films such as bread bags, fruit and vegetable bags, newspaper sleeves, and wrapping films.

Recycled Products: Garbage Bags and Can Liners: Many garbage bags and can liners contain recycled film components. The clear plastic film seen on bottled water, paper towels, or other bulk goods packaging often contains recycled film. Recycled film can also be used in injection molding and blow molding machines to produce playground equipment and park benches.

Recycling plastic bags requires some effort, but it's absolutely worth it. It helps to recycle valuable plastic film.