Plastic Bags are 100% Recyclable

What should you do with your leftover plastic grocery bags? Reuse or recycle them!

Plastic bags are 100% recyclable. Recycling is easy and makes a real difference. Since 2005, there has been a 54% increase in plastic film recycling.¹

  • Bring your plastic bags, sacks, and wraps to participating retail stores and drop them into plastic bag recycling bins. From there, the bags and wraps are picked up for recycling.
    • Don’t forget to include bread bags, dry cleaning bags, newspaper bags, product overwrap (plastic wrap around packages of toilet paper, paper towels, napkins, etc.), or any plastic film marked with a #2 HDPE or #4 LDPE recycling sign. All of these can be included with your plastic bags in the store recycling bin!
  • Your recycled plastic bags may get a new life as eco-friendly raw material for playgrounds, construction materials, and new plastic bags.
  • Plastic bag recycling supports American manufacturing jobs. In 2017, 81% of plastic retail bags and film returned for recycling were reclaimed by U.S. and Canadian recyclers.¹

 

  1. More Recycling, “2017 National Post-Consumer Plastic Bag & Film Recycling Report,” July 2019.