Every think about all of those sandwich bags that we use daily? There must be millions if not billions or zillions of them in the landfills. Like so many people, I would wash out the plastic bags and reuse them over and over but eventually they had to go into the recycling or the trash. One thing I have discovered (or really rediscoved) is the wax paper bags. I remember as a kid my Mother packing my school lunch in them. I would bring them back home and she would take a dishcloth and wash them out, rinse and hang them to dry to be reused later. (Look for Sarah's post on how to make a bag dryer next week.) The wax bags are the perfect size to slide that all natural peanut butter and jelly sandwich into. Like pickles on it? I would recommend putting anything that has liquid to it in a small dish with a lid (plus you can carry extra to snack on - a low calorie treat) on it as the wax bags do not seal. These wax bags ae non-toxic when burned, are landfill safe and do not contaminate ground water. They will eventually decompose where the plastic ones will be here when no one else is. You may be thinking why not just recycle the plastic bags? Plastic is made with oil and the wax paper bags are not. This is one step (although tiny by if just one person does it but if we all pitching and do it we can help limit our dependance on oil.
Look for these bags in the isle that has the sandwich bags in them. I orginally started buying them from the Three Rivers Food Co op but have recently seen them in a major chain store. If you store does not carry them ask them to.
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