Kicking the Single-Use Petroleum-Based Plastic Bags Habit

I've become aware that available to the average consumer are totally biodegradable corn-based plastic bags. This plastic was originally created for farmers and used as crop cover, that would decompose into the land. So someone, who will surely going to eco-heaven, has started marketing products using this innovation to regular consumers needing plastics for their homes. Surely an executive somewhere realized that there is money to be made in this area of the market, so it's not a totally altruistic deed, meriting eco-sainthood. Still, reducing the petroleum-based bags that are produced (harmful part 1) and then litter our planet, both on top, like clogging shorelines and waterways, as well as sitting for hundreds of years underground in landfills (harmful part 2 and 3), I applaud and support the effort! These bags from Biobag can decompose between 10 and 45 days, leaving behind no residue. While a bit pricey, I think there is an easy, and long-term cost-effective way to incorporate these into our home.

We re-use plastic grocery and produce bags in a variety of ways before ultimately taking the bags to the recycling bin at the Whole Foods. However, some plastic bags in our house are used only once or at most a few times and those are used to:
* line the 13-gallon kitchen garbage can
* line an identical 13-gallon bin for recycling
* line the wet cloth diaper pail
* carry with us on our dog walks

These are my next steps in order to try to eliminate our household reliance on the single-use petroleum-based plastic bag, by replacing those old bags with either these corn-based, compostable plastic bags or with washable liners:

Step 1) Purchase kitchen bags ($4.75 for a box of 12) and doggie waste bags ($4.29 for a bundle of 50) from BuyGreen.com. Use these kitchen bags for the kitchen waste only, to which we accumuluate 1 bag per week. So a box of 12 would last us 3 months. (Not too bad for less than $5.) We will stop using the plastic grocery bags and produce bags for dog waste and instead use these Biobags exclusively. The plastic grocery bags can still be re-used for produce at the store and for other purposes, but will ultimately end up in the plastic bag recycling bin.

Step 2) Purchase 4 stuff sacks (2 small ones--$6.95 each--for the diaper pail and 2 large ones--$17.95 each--for the kitchen recycling bin), like these found at TinyTush.com, the diapering website where I purchased Thora's cloth diapers. Line the wet cloth diaper pail and wash it along with the diapers when needed. Since I will have two, I'll always have a clean diaper pail liner to use. The same method will apply for the recycling bin, which I was lining before to keep from cleaning up the inevitable leaks of rinsed-out-but-not-totally-dry bottles of beer, wine, juice, milk, random gunk, etc. This way, we'll dump the recycling and wash the liner when needed, replacing it with the spare, clean liner.

While there is the unavoidable upfront cost of the washable stuff sacks, I think they will pay for themselves relatively quickly, since we'll have reduced our home's need of a plastic bin liner by over 50%. And even if they don't quite pay for themselves that quickly in terms that are apparent in our monthly budget (what would be quick enough?), I'm not sure that I care all that much. If the financial burden for me is slightly more so that the environmental burden on the planet and my fellow human beings can be slightly less, well, it's a no-brainer.