How many times will you use a ziplock bag?

[TimBikes]

I try to reuse them if they are not dirty but honestly, think it is worse to waste the water washing and rinsing them than to just get a new bag (or to use some sort of other container than washes/rinses more easily). By my estimation, it takes a good half a quart of H2O or more to thoroughly wash and rinse the bags gallon sized bags. And since I use hot water, it uses energy too.

[JSH]

We only use plastic bags for meat and bread.

We buy meat in bulk at Costco and repackage into ziploc bags. (1 serving of meat per quart-size bag, all the quart-size bags into one gallon bag) These bags do not get recycled because they are #4 plastic my local recycling centers have recently banned all plastics except for #1 and #2.

We bake our own bread and put the loaf in a gallon size bag. This bag is reused until the seal stops working.

Everything else goes into reusable containers. We currently have plastic containers but are replacing them with glass as they wear out.

[Jared]

Once.

[Blauer Glimmer]

Depends on what was in it. It's hard to sufficiently clean the inside of a used plastic bag without wasting more water and energy than the bag is worth.

[DaveinOlyWA]

i don think to idea behind the thread is aimed at the cost of buying verses reusing bags or what uses the most resources. so the question of what is used to wash whatever you use is a non issue, because you will wash any alternative method or simply toss what you have after one use

right now there are massive floating garbage islands out in the oceans that are several thousand square miles and the primary component is these discarded plastic bags. they literally will last forever. eventually wave action breaks them up into little pieces that "less than bright" fish tend to eat which is probably not the best diet choice.

so we are stuck with the question of the obvious convenience these bags provide verses the hassle of another option. i personally think that plastic grocery store bags should either be banned (not likely) or force stores to charge 25 cents a piece to use them (result will be the same as a ban except this option would be much more effective)

[925PriusGuy]

I try to reuse (and not use plastic bags at all) but sometimes it's just a matter of convenience. I reuse the bags if the contents were dry (pita chips, bread, etc.) but if I use one to freeze pasta sauce, then there's no way I can see to reuse one. I try to use glass containers as much as possible. I agree on the plastic grocery bags. The only commercial store bag that I really like and reuse over and over again is Target store bags. I get several uses out of them as they are large and thick (which is probably a bad thing for the environment). Sigh.. can't win either way.

[ShellyT]

It's not just heat that leads to leaching. Bleach is known to cause it in polycarbonate. I personally am not worried about the leaching, but it seems more effort than it's worth once it involves washing them. We tend to use the semi-disposable containers more often.