Although many curbside recycling programs don’t accept plastic bags, there are a number of facilities that are set up to recycle them. Take Bag-2-Bag, for example. Bag-2-Bag, which is run by packaging brand family Novolex, has the world’s largest closed-loop plastic bag recycling plant in Indiana and more than 30,000 drop-off locations.
At Novolex’s recycling plant, plastic bags are melted down and transformed into pellets, which can be used to produce new products. The company turns its plastic pellets into new plastic bags for retailers in an effort to create awareness around the fact that recycling plastic bags can lead to the creation of a recycled bag.
Earth911 has more information on recycling plastic bags:
As plastic bags continue to get banned across the nation and world — San Diego is the latest major U.S. city to ban plastic bags — they’ve started to feel like public enemy no. 1.
They’re known for ending up in oceans, looking unsightly in tree branches, and not being recycled curbside. But are they really all bad? The situation is complicated, as a recent Grist article explored. Alternatives like paper bags come with their own carbon footprint (which is higher than that of plastic bags) and reusable cotton bags require tons of water to produce and are generally not recyclable. Some reusable bags need to be used more than 100 times before they’re better for the environment.