Recycle This Pittsburgh

Mesh Produce Bags

About These Items

A number of produce items from our local grocery stores now come pre-packaged in these mesh net bags, from citrus fruits to garlic to onions. These bags are made of plastics, typically nylon or polypropylene (#5). These bags can not be placed in Pittsburgh curbside recycling or recycled through any other known local channel. Since they are made from plastics, they will take hundreds of years to decompose and pose a hazard for animals if they end up in the environment.

Look for ways to cut back on these bags.

Since they can not be recycled by the city, the best thing you can do is to try to avoid these bags. Unfortunately this can be hard to avoid for certain items.

Look for grocery stores that allow you to buy individual produce items, rather than items pre-packaged in these mesh bags. If you’re buying several items, you can get reusable produce bags to use that are lightweight, easy to carry with you, and also provide some of the same benefits of mesh bags such as allowing for easy washing & draining of produce. If your grocer only offers particular produce item pre-packaged bags, consider submitting customer feedback asking them provide different packaging or non-packaged options.

Re-use.

To keep your bags out of the landfill, check out the ideas floating around the internet on how to re-use them. Making no-sew kitchen scrubbies seems to be one of the most popular ideas and uses several mesh bag for each scrubber made. While re-use won’t keep these mesh bags out of the landfill forever, it does extend their value.

Donate to the Center for Creative Reuse.

These mesh bags are accepted as donations at the Pittsburgh Center for Creative Reuse, which is a non-profit, non-traditional art supply shop located at the intersection of Wilkinsburg, Homewood, and Point Breeze, where people can donate and shop for used art and craft supplies. Make sure your items are clean before you donate.

🛇 Can we reduce unrecyclable plastic packaging in PA?

Pennsylvania lawmakers have introduced legislation package aimed at reducing the glut of single-use plastics distributed in our state. If you would like to know more about this initiative and see if your lawmaker supports it, check out pahouse.com/zerowaste.
If the overuse of single-use plastics and their impact on our state environment and resources concern you, considering asking your representative to support the advancement of this legislation.