Keep your plastic bags and other plastic film out of the landfill and instead drop them at the grocery store to be made into plastic lumber!  Trex is the leading producer of alternative lumber and buys #2 & #4 plastic film nationwide as feedstock for their product.
You can drop off the following types of #2 and #4 film at either T&C or Safeway in their designated plastic collection container.
→ It must be clean, dry, empty and have no tape or labels on it. ←   No crinkly plastic.

What you can recycle:

  • Plastic grocery bags
  • Produce bags
  • Bread bags
  • Ice bags
  • Wood pellet bags
  • Dry cleaning bags
  • Garbage bags (CLEAN)
  • Newspaper/magazine sleeves
  • Pallet wrap
  • Case/Bulk item overwrap
  • Shipping air pillows (pop first) OR take to Zutto unpopped for their reuse
  • Bubble wrap (clean and no tape) OR take to Zutto for their reuse
  • Tyvek mailing envelopes (remove label)
  • Mailers made exclusively of bubble wrap, like Amazon’s (remove label)
  • Furniture & electronic wrap
  • Chicken feed bags (WITHOUT webbing)
  • Cereal & cracker box liner bags (these are chemically congruent with Trex processing)
  • Saltine cracker sleeves
  • Zip lock/Resealable bags (remove hard plastic zip)
  • Racing bibs (remove electronic chip, no safety pins)
  • Plus these two types of packing material:

                           
                      Not thicker than 1/4″                                                    Must have “4” inside recycling symbol

What NOT to recycle:

  • Any plastic film with food residue on it
  • *Saran wrap
  • **Frozen food bags
  • Candy wrappers
  • Snack cheese wrappers
  • Chip bags
  • “Crinkly” plastic (eg, pre-washed salads bags)
  • Pet food bags
  • Six-pack rings
  • Degradable/Compostable bags
  • Styrofoam
  • Zippered bedding/comforter bags
  • Paper mailers with bubble wrap liner
  • Hard plastic
  • Potting soil and compost bags
  • Produce pre-packed #5 bags (have air holes)

* While Saran wrap is stretchy and film-like, it CANNOT be accepted.  Rather than one type of plastic, Saran wrap is a combination of plastics that makes it unacceptable for the recycling process.
** While frozen food bags look like regular resealable bags, these bags are not.  Apparently, frozen food bags are lined with a preservative that renders the plastic incompatible with the plastic film recycling process.

For a pdf approximating the above list, go here.

Watch what happens to your plastic film after you drop it off at the grocery store.

Read about Sakai Middle School winning the national Trex Recycling School Challenge.

Last updated 3/16/2023