Garbage Bags

They are called Garbage Bags, but they are not Garbage Bags. Black plastic, green plastic, orange plastic (steer clear of the bio-chemical yellow plastic bags)

To me they are Resource Bags because folks use them to bag grass clippings and drop them off at my place. Grass Clippings are a resource; use them as mulch, build a compost pile, weed control, and so on.

I ask people to not knot their bags; some bags arrive with the four side tags tied in pairs, three half-hitches for each pair, pulled tight, crossed over. I struggle to untie these knots.

As I trial I asked two donors to untie the knots to two bags each. One donor took four minutes for two bags; the other donor had managed to untie only one bag in the four minutes and was struggling with the second bag.

We can suggest that it takes two minutes to untie a bag (and these donors did not have 77-year-old eyesight).

I receive up to twenty bags of grass clippings per day. That means I could spend forty-five minutes just untying the bags, on top of loading them into a barrow and wheeling them across the yard and emptying them.

What benefits arise from not knotting bags of grass clippings (and probably bags of other resources)

(1) You spend less time and effort tying the knots

(2) I spend less time and effort untying the knots

(3) The bags are easier to empty. I up-end them and drop them open end down, the grass shifts about six inches to the mouth of the bag and this inflates the bottom of the bag (now close to me) and especially inflates what used to be the two bottom corners, making it easy for me to grasp the bag and lift it straight upwards.

At this point I invert the bag and peg it out to dry on my washing line. I want to shake free every clipping that I can.

After one hour, the bags are clean, dry, and available to re-use. I place them at the front of the yard. Help yourself to as many bags as you will need for tomorrow’s haul.

(4) By re-using the bags you save the time and money it would take you to obtain a new carton of bags.

(5) Because you are re-using the bags, you don’t need to fill the bags with clippings to maximize the one-off-use of the bags. Note that since your supply of bags is close to unlimited, it doesn’t matter if you use two or three times as many bags, because you will get them back the next day.

Filling bags half, or even just a third full brings further benefits

(6) Half or one-third full bags are lighter than full bags and easier to lift without generating strained back muscles.

(7) Because the loaded bags are much lighter, there is a lower probability that the strain will stretch and weaken the plastic.

(8) That lowers the probability that the bags will puncture or rip or tear, prolonging the life of the bags.

Following on from this, and one donor's comments that from now on they wanted only bags with no holes, I realized that Second Use For Everything could be applied to bags with holes or small rips.

Such bags might be unsuitable for carrying grass clippings in a car or SUV because grass clippings can escape, and then the vehicle must be vacuumed.

I understand that.

But I reasoned too that if you had two such bags and put one inside the other, the chance that any two holes would align is minimal. So:-

(9) Since there is always a Second Use For Everything, you can place one holey bag inside the other holey bag. Once they are double-bagged there will be no holes!

Friday, July 21, 2023

Today I issued two special bags to one contractor. One bag is marked 1/3 the way up, the second bag is marked ½ the way up. The contractor is charged with:-

(1) Using the bags as often as possible

(2) Filling the bags roughly to the 1/3 and ½ mark

(3) Leaving the bags un-knotted

(4) To load only grass and clover clippings in these two bags; no sticks or woody weeds.

I want to obtain a maximum value for the number of uses we can get out of a bag, and so the basis is ‘make regular use of them, but unknotted and part-full.

We already have a value for minimum use – one use only – and this is for bags that are tightly tied or contain material that compost poorly – especially woody sticks.

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