can you compost plastic bags?
No — grocery and sandwich bags are polyethylene film; they shred into confetti-like plastic that's impossible to get back out of compost.
which bins can take it?
- hot pile no
- cold pile no
- worm bin no
- bokashi no
- tumbler no
- curbside no
- curbside: Never bag food scraps in regular plastic for the green cart — use paper or a liner your program explicitly approves.
why?
Film is the worst plastic format for a pile: thin polyethylene tears as you turn, wraps around fork tines and tumbler axles, and rips into flakes no screen can catch. Bags are also the contaminant municipal composters cite most often — a few stray bags can get a whole truckload of organics rejected.
what to do instead
Return clean, dry bags to the film-recycling bin at most large grocery stores — film can't go curbside because it jams sorting machinery. If you want a compostable liner, buy BPI-certified bags and confirm your local program actually accepts them.
often confused with
- Compostable Bags — BPI-certified bags are PLA and starch blends, not polyethylene — a real difference, though many curbside programs still ask you to skip them.
quick answers
Why can't plastic bags go in curbside recycling?
Film wraps around the spinning discs and rollers at sorting facilities, forcing shutdowns while workers cut it free. That's why film has its own drop-off stream at retail stores instead.
My bag says 'biodegradable' — can I compost that one?
Not without a BPI or TUV certification mark. Uncertified 'biodegradable' bags are usually oxo-degradable plastic designed to fragment quickly, which several states now ban from even using the label.