What’s so great about trash bags anyway?
We get this question quite often. “Should I use trash bags? Or, how do you prefer we put it out?” We always tell people the same thing. Yes, you should bag your trash with trash bags. I know many people are reading this going, “Duh, of course you should bag your trash? How else do you do it?” While others of you are saying, “I never bag my trash, why would I? I have a trash can.”
There are 5 major reasons you should bag your trash.
1. Trash Bags keep your trash can clean
It’s a trash can, who cares if its clean?! Well, your trash can sits around your house day in and day out. If the trash going into it isn’t bagged then chances are it’s leaving waste residue on the inside of the can. Which over time can build up, decay, and begin to smell not so pleasant. There could also be things that start to grow in there… things that aren’t supposed to grow in there… The point is, if you’re going to have something sit around your home, wouldn’t you rather it be clean and not attracting flies, mold, and other things?
2. Clean trash cans last longer
Trash cans with bagged trash tend to last longer. We’re not exactly sure happens scientifically here, however we do know that trash cans with loose trash tend to break faster. The handles tend to get snapped off, the sides and bottom crack sooner, and if there is wheels on your can they tend to fall off sooner as well. This could happen for a variety of reasons. The residue itself could have something to do with the side and bottom cracking. There is also the fact loose trash is more difficult to get out of a can than bagged trash, which ultimately exposes your can to more wear and tear when it gets dumped.
3. It can make your life easier
Bagging your trash can also make your life a little bit simpler. We’re all looking for ways to make life simpler and one good move toward that simple life is making as few trips to your trash can as possible. Now, when we say trash can we of course mean the can you put out to get serviced. If you use indoor cans with trash bags in them you don’t have to walk out to the service trash can every time you have a little waste to throw away. You can make one trip when your indoor trash bag is full, saving you a little time.
If you have indoor trash cans that you usually take to the service trash can (the service trash can is the can that we would dump at your weekly pick-up) and dump into the service can it wouldn’t save you much time to bag your trash. However, it would keep your indoor can cleaner. We’ve also found that trash bags are usually easier to handle than trash cans when it comes to maneuvering them around a house, so it could save you from some difficulty.
4. Trash Bags keep trash contained
This is a biggy and it should probably be number one on the list. Loose trash is very hard to keep contained during dumping and transportation. For one, all it takes is a slightly breezy day to turn the hopper of a garbage truck into something resembling a wind tunnel and loose trash often doesn’t fare out so well. If loose trash blows away while we’re dumping it or driving to the next location we have to chase it down and get it in the truck because littering isn’t cool.
The second reason keeping trash contained in a bag is important is because it is much easier and faster to pack into our trucks. Loose trash has a knack of escaping the packer blade meaning we have to spend more time packing the trash at each stop to get all the loose stuff in. If we don’t get it packed into the truck it could blow away during the drive to the next pick-up location.
5. It’s the nice thing to do
Finally, number 5. Not only is it nice to do for yourself, but it’s nice to do for your garbage man. Bagged trash is much nicer, cleaner, and easier to handle than loose trash. Loose trash is frustrating and hard to work with.