How many times will you use a ziplock bag?

[burritos]

For the storage of frozen fruit(for my smoothies) I'll pretty much wash them and use them indefinitely until they rip open and become unusable. I have to say, for being a disposable item, they last for a long time. We are still on the same box of zips that we purchased 6 years ago.

[qbee42]

Same here. I replace them when they break, or are fouled with something really nasty.

Tom

[eaglesight333]

I reuse them as often as I can unless super gunky or tear. Any ziploc that I do get rid of, I recycle with my plastic bags. If they have the hard plactic zip tab, I pull that off and toss it with my hard plastic recycle.

[Proco]

Ditto to everything above. We wash & re-use ours as often as possible. If they get a small hole in them, we tape over the hole to get some more life out of them.

[ShellyT]

My friend, among other things, once worked in PVC R&D lab. His supervisor held advanced degrees in the plastics field. So he was knowledgable and well read on his field. He only used glass containers for his lunches.

I'm all for reusing when feasable, and will likely reuse a zip lock a couple times, but as they age plastics will start leaching chemicals.

[Codyroo]

Originally Posted by qbee42

Same here. I replace them when they break, or are fouled with something really nasty.

Tom

+1

[qbee42]

Originally Posted by ShellyT

My friend, among other things, once worked in PVC R&D lab. His supervisor held advanced degrees in the plastics field. So he was knowledgable and well read on his field. He only used glass containers for his lunches.

I'm all for reusing when feasable, and will likely reuse a zip lock a couple times, but as they age plastics will start leaching chemicals.

Most likely you are worried about BPA. Recent studies have shown that wear and tear is not a factor in leaching. Heat, on the other hand, is a problem:

Heat causes chemical to leach from plastic - USATODAY.com

Tom

[DaveinOlyWA]

i rarely use them. i have a few sets of "tupperware" like containers that literally come in every conceivable shape and size and so that is what i use.

eventually they do wear out, lids get lost or they simply dont see well enough, so they do get tossed. to be honest with ya, wondering what would be better.

some containers i have had for years and have been used at least hundreds of times, other ones the not so useful sizes, cheaper plastic, etc., i can easily believe may have only been used a handful of times.

plus with a 2 year old, keeping it all together is now a bit of a challenge.

[hill]

Originally Posted by qbee42

same here. I replace them when they break, or are fouled with something really nasty.

Tom

+1

.

[DaveinOlyWA]

on the glass thing. i actually tried that for a while. but they were heavy and easy to break. so i went to prepackaged foods, mostly soups i could open, heat up in regular bowl and eat, so used no packaging at all. that actually worked for the most part and i still do it at least twice a week now.

but soup gets old after a while and try as i might, it was hard to have enough variety. i also tried regular ceramic or glass containers that came with lids. didnt work. leaks were common especially if in a bag with other items.

as far as leeching chemicals, i personally dont feel extremely threatened by BPA, BHA , and any other "B" thing. just keep them out of the microwave (i stopped doing that years ago only because the lids stopped fitting right if nuked too much)

the only time i really use plastic bags is when space is a premium. will do it for picnics and that kind of stuff, but we have a case of plastic bags given to us a few years ago that had like 6 boxes of bags in it with like 50 to a box. pretty sure we still have 3-4 un opened boxes left...and ya, i admit, use em once and toss em.

i took an inventory of the kitchen, garage (where 80% of our food is stored) etc, and of the 5 plastic bags in use right now, all 5 are being used to store small parts to various things we own...ya know, screws and such