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Plastic Bag Washing Club 2015 for Earth Day

Earth Day is upon us April 22 — the 45th anniversary this year, in fact — so it’s time to reinvigorate the Plastic Bag Washing Club.

I’ve  found that I’m not alone in my kitchen recycling behavior that has me washing out sturdy zipper-top plastic bags when I use them. Although I try not to use these bags too often, when I do use one, I wash it and let it dry in my kitchen garden window. On a busy cooking day, or when I am using up a lot of leftovers, I might have 4-5 bags drying at any given time. I find that I can use a bag many, many times over if I simply wash it out after use and leave it to dry.

Long ago my husband had me convinced it was quirky behavior, but it turns out there are LOTS of fellow bag-washers. So many, in fact, that I have created the Plastic Bag Washing Club, 2015 edition. This follows the 2011 club when I first confessed my behavior and invited others to let me know if I was truly a freakshow, or if it is was more common than it seemed.

Call for members: If you are in the Plastic Bag Washing Club, please let me know so we all don’t feel so odd. Send me a photo (D Reinhold at charter dot net) of your plastic bags drying in your kitchen (or whevever you dry them), and I will post it, and make you an honorary member of the…

Plastic Bag Washing Club 2015

Let’s visit a few kitchens so we can see how others do it.
Plastic Bag Washing Club members Robert and Carol Frank | www.ShockinglyDelicious.com [1]Robert and Carol Frank of Washington state use their (mostly unused) dishwasher as a handy drying rack. They only run the dishwasher once a week, so the bags have a convenient place to air out and dry.
Plastic Bag Washing Club member Cheryl Newton  | www.ShockinglyDelicious.com [2]Cheryl Newton of Clearfield, Utah, who calls herself a “civilian with a hopeless recipe addiction,” hangs her bags on knife handles to dry. “If they’re the stiffer freezer bags, sometimes I’ll just set them, open as much as possible, on a towel. I hope your roundup encourages more people to reuse their plastic bags!”
Plastic Bag Washing Club member Denise Vivaldo | www.ShockinglyDelicious.com [3]Denise Vivaldo, renowned food stylist, recipe developer and owner of the Denise Vivaldo Group [4] in Los Angeles, washes her bags out with soapy hot water and hangs them to dry on a bottle, in this case San Pellegrino water (how fancy, Denise!). She reuses those that have had bread or vegetables in them, but discards any that have had raw protein (such as meat, chicken or fish), for obvious food safety reasons.
Plastic Bag Washing Club member Kristine Wyatt | www.ShockinglyDelicious.com [5]Kristine Wyatt of Pacific Palisades, Calif., who blogs at So Many Interesting Things [6], washes out not only her plastic bags (which she dries on a bottle), but also her foil, which she then stacks to use again. Bonus points, Kristine!

Plastic Bag Washing Club 2011

Plastic Bag Washing Club member Rustic Garden Bistro | www.ShockinglyDelicious.com [7]

Kim from Rusticgardenbistro.com [8] in Orange County, Calif. perches hers atop her stack of handwashables drying in the sink. That’s a lotta pots and pans! Dinner must have been great!  

Plastic Bag Washing Club member Lori Valesko | www.ShockinglyDelicious.com [9]

Lori from Beachtrading.com [10] in Long Beach, Calif. also favors the dish stacking method of drying. She just finished washing up after making a pot of Crock-Pot chili. I’m sensing a colander theme here.

Plastic Bag Washing Club member Rashmi of Yumkid | www.ShockinglyDelicious.com [11]

Rashmi at Yumkid.com [12]is in the club! Little kids in the house…lotta sippy cups. (Where’s your colander, girl?)

Plastic Bag Washing Club member Kate Woods | www.ShockinglyDelicious.com [13]

Kate from Katewoods [14] in Australia has a little bucket full of tape and pens and “stuff” beside the sink, and drapes bags to dry them. She even saves plastic wrap (Glad Wrap).

Plastic Bag Washing Club member Betsy Lombard | www.ShockinglyDelicious.com [15]

Betsy from BetsyLombard.com [16]in Nevada City, Calif. simply dries them in the corner. Nuthin’ fancy needed! But…look below for her extra tweak…

Plastic Bag Washing Club member Betsy Lombard | www.ShockinglyDelicious.com [17]

Now this, my friends, is a delux plastic bag holder, open at both ends with elastic at the top and the bottom, sort of like an air sock. Bags at the ready! Betsy’s husband’s Tennessee grandmother made it for her, and they call it…get this…a “pecker warmer.” I’ll wait for a second while you absorb that. Are you laughing? Because I am sophomoric, I will suggest an alternative alliterative name — how about “wienie warmer?”

Plastic Bag Washing Club member Jodie Eyeberg | www.ShockinglyDelicious.com [18]

Jodie from Colorado Springs, CO [19]turns them inside out to clean, and uses anything she has — including her faucet — to stand them up.
Plastic Bag Washing Club member Cassy Cohen Muronaka | www.ShockinglyDelicious.com [20]
Cassy Cohen Muronaka [21] will wash out zipper-top bags on occasion, but ALWAYS washes out her FoodSaver vacuum sealer bags! “I love my vacuum sealer, and waved goodbye to frostburn the day I bought it,” she says.

Join the club!

Don’t forget: If you are like us and wash and reuse your plastic bags, please shoot s snapshot of your system. Send me a photo (DReinhold@charter.net) of your plastic bags drying in your kitchen (or whevever you dry them), and I will post it, and make you an honorary member of the Plastic Bag Washing Club!