The Right Way to Clean and Reuse 'Single-Use' Plastic Bags

Photo: namaki (Shutterstock)

Single-use plastic is a plague upon the Earth that the more environmentally conscious among us try in vain to avoid. No matter how careful you are to bring your reuseable tote and buy stuff in recyclable and compostable packaging, eventually you’ll need to go to the grocery store for produce, which means you’ll become responsible for at least one more single-use plastic bag.

There are plenty of ways to reuse plastic bags outside the kitchen, but plastic is annoyingly useful for certain kinds of food storage, and that’s mostly what I keep mine around for. Usually, reusing a bag is as simple as shaking it out and stuffing it in the “extra bags” drawer with its siblings, but every now and then, I run into a situation that requires actual cleaning. Washing and drying plastic bags might sound like a hassle, but with the right technique, it’s pretty simple—and an excellent way to get as much use out of them as possible. Here’s how to do it.

How to clean a plastic bag for easy reuse

Start by turning the bag inside out over one of your hands, like you would to pick up dog poop. This exposes whatever gross stuff is hanging out on the inside so you can easily wash it with soap and warm running water. Make sure to get as much of the surface as you can; if you’re washing a square bag, poke the corners out with a finger so you can get those, too. I usually just use my hands, but a sponge or soft brush can help get rid of more stubborn residue. Keep the bag inside-out and rinse all the soap off.

Properly drying your bags is a little trickier because you need to keep them inside out, but if you can do that, they’ll dry faster than you think. I usually hang freshly washed bags on pot handles or over tall glasses in the drying rack so they (mostly) keep their shape as they dry. You can also just drape them over your drying rack, but avoid putting anything on top of them so they get plenty of airflow.

Remember: Just because a plastic bag was designed to be single-use doesn’t mean you have to use it once and throw it away. As long as you wash, rinse, and dry your bags inside-out, you’ll be surprised at how easy it is to get even the flimsy ones squeaky clean—which means you can use them again and again.

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