If you care about keeping plastic from fouling up our Earth home forever, here’s a more difficult plan, but a real “Planet-Saver:”

Instead of large garbage cans requiring large plastic bags, invest in smaller metal buckets with lids (or ask a painter for several empty 5-gallon paint buckets with lids.) Line each bucket with 4 or 5 sheets of old newspaper and put your garbage directly in the bucket.

At the dump, just take it to the garbage compactor, lift it up, and dump out the unwrapped garbage. (The guys will look at you with awe.) In the cold winter, your buckets will not become smelly.

In the summer you may occasionally wash them out with the hose. You just saved money, and you saved the planet a big bit of plastic trash.