using plastic trashbags for 100% biodegradeable things- WTH!

[jordychristine]

seriously, this is SO frustrating. when I see people do this, I just want to... I don't know. I just get so angry for some reason.

I'm pulling out of my driveway and I see house after house with PLASTIC BAGS FULL OF LEAVES. LEAVES!! seriously, leaves are 100% BIODEGRADEABLE. THEY ARE FROM NATURE. Why put them in PLASTIC, which does not break down, when these leaves/branches/grass clippings can be made into COMPOST or put into a PAPER BAG?!

It drives me INSANE. Do people not realize what they are doing?! They are completely wasting a plastic bag. I'm not saying I never use plastic bags (I live with my BF and his parents though, so if I lived completely on my own, I probably WOULDN'T use plastic bags at all) but STILL. How does it make sense to fill 4 plastic bags full of leaves that are going to end up in the land fill? Leaves can break down! Plastic is forever!

aaaah I'm so mad right now!

[tmsmalley]

Actually, regardless of what kind of bag or even IF they're in a bag or not, leaves and grass clippings do not break down in a landfill because they're packed too tightly. If you don't mulch them with a mulching mower or put them in your own compost heap or have a "green waste" trash pick up, it doesn't matter what way they go to the landfill, they'll be there forever anyway.

Tess (whose husband didn't want to repair the 10 year old cordless rechargable mulching mower and opted for a gas bagger instead, but at least we do have green pick up)

[Michelle]

Do people not realize what they are doing?!<snip>

Some people really don't know. My sister is an avid recycler (if that's a word?) but got mad when she moved in to her house and the recycle guy knocked on the door to ask her not to put her paper recycles in plastic bags. She told me something like, 'I'll put them in plastic bags if I want!'.

I try to bring my own bags to the store but if I forget, I get paper and then use those to put out any extra paper recycles. *That reminds me...I always feel like I'm talking about some new rock band when I ask my husband to take out 'The Recycles', lol.

[whatsfree4me]

Around here you have to put them in a plastic bag with a tag on, or they will not pick them up. Not everybody has a compost bin in their back yard.

[greenrays]

It is super annoying, just get a dang mower that will chop it back into your yard---what is wrong with that?!?!?! That is what we do, but all our neighbors that pay for lawn service get the bags (normally 3 per service) at the end of their driveways.

[greenrays]

Actually, regardless of what kind of bag or even IF they're in a bag or not, leaves and grass clippings do not break down in a landfill because they're packed too tightly. If you don't mulch them with a mulching mower or put them in your own compost heap or have a "green waste" trash pick up, it doesn't matter what way they go to the landfill, they'll be there forever anyway.

Tess (whose husband didn't want to repair the 10 year old cordless rechargable mulching mower and opted for a gas bagger instead, but at least we do have green pick up)

Not true.....they will break down, not as well as when kept in a yard though.

[greenrays]

Crud.. I WANT edit button!! lol

Grass and leaves don't give off hardly any methane in the landfills so they are such a waste there, I wish more people would just toss it back in their yard.

[whatsfree4me]

It is super annoying, just get a dang mower that will chop it back into your yard---what is wrong with that?!?!?! That is what we do, but all our neighbors that pay for lawn service get the bags (normally 3 per service) at the end of their driveways.

I guess I was thinking of sticks and brush. The grass just stays on the lawn.. if it gets mowed, LOL. In the fall we just rake the leaves to the curb and they take care of them.

[purplefdu]

It is super annoying, just get a dang mower that will chop it back into your yard---what is wrong with that?!?!?! That is what we do, but all our neighbors that pay for lawn service get the bags (normally 3 per service) at the end of their driveways.

Yup, use petroleum products to run your mower. Thats much more efficient than using a paper lawn bag and a rake, lol.

Kidding. But you know its true. People will gush about how "eco-friendly" they are while they bought an expensive blade for their riding lawnmower so they could sit on their fat tushies and drive around the lawn. Whether they leave the clippings on the lawn as mulch or they go into a bag attachment and get dumped in a compost bin is irrelevant after the hours of gas powered pollution.:shrug7:

(wife of a geek who only owns a hand powered push mower because it doesn't use gas)

[warcraftbaby]

Well...when we had a yard we set the leaves on FIRE! I grew up in the country where there was no such thing as trash pickup-either ya shelled out the big bucks for a dumpster to be picked up once a month or you set your garbage ablaze. Of course all old food and such got slopped to the chickens or on the garden and we had sooo much less actual trash to burn there than my hubby and I do here in town.

When we had a yard we still burned our leaves (I think it's against the rules but not enforced, since the officers would drive by on patrol waving as the pile burned lol!) here in town because no WAY were we wasting our precious can space with leaves or our precious garbage bags! But even then that was only when the grass was too dry too mow. If it was mowable we just mowed the leaves with the grass and it became mulch for the lawn-no raking required

I don't get bagging leaves because a) it seems like a hassle and b) these dang garbage bags are expensive! I *almost* want to live in the country again just so I can set my trash on fire