Buying dedicated trash bags is a massive consumer scam.
By @ivylol · Internet
I use sturdy paper takeout bags and grocery sacks for all our apartment trash, but my boyfriend insists it looks tacky and wants us to buy actual plastic trash bags.
The full story
I said what I said. My boyfriend thinks I am losing my mind because I refuse to buy garbage bags when we order takeout twice a week. We get those thick, heavy-duty brown paper bags with the braided handles from upscale burger spots and Thai places, and every time he tries to fold them flat and stuff them into recycling, I stop him like he is throwing away cold hard cash. A paper grocery sack fits standard bathroom and under-sink office bins perfectly. It stands upright on its own. It has structural integrity. Meanwhile, plastic trash bags are literally engineered to rip open the second you toss in an empty pasta sauce jar or an envelope with a slightly sharp corner. You buy a 40-pack of brand-name scented drawstring bags for $11 just to carry your garbage six feet out to the dumpster. You are paying a monthly subscription fee to throw away trash in something that was manufactured solely to become trash. Every time our kitchen trash gets close to full, I just stand up a brown takeout bag on the counter, dump vegetable peels and coffee grounds straight into it, fold the top over like a lunch sack, and walk it down to the chute. It's clean, it's zero waste, and it doesn't leave that weird artificial lavender-vanilla chemical film all over your fingers. He had his friends over on Sunday to watch football, and one of them went to throw away a beer can in our bathroom and literally laughed out loud because the trash can was lined with a bakery bag that still had a giant croissant logo printed on the side. My boyfriend was mortified and said it looks like we're broke college kids living in squalor. I told him spending actual money on bespoke plastic film just to throw away empty wrappers is the ultimate modern scam. Free bags exist everywhere. Use them.
How people voted
- Bad Move — 30% (46 votes)
- Needs Context — 42% (63 votes)
- Reasonable — 28% (42 votes)
Readers say “Needs Context” (42%) — 151 votes and 5 comments so far.
What people are saying
@sashakay — Cooked.
@gusyy — Good for you on cutting back on all that plastic, it really adds up over time!
@karamm — lmaooo
@inessorta — A man shouldn't care what another grown man has in his wastebasket.
@judekk — the croissant bag in the bathroom is elite level trolling keep it up
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