I've said it before, but I think its a message that's worth repeating - Does your rubbish really need to be put in a plastic bag?

An article over at The Conversation, 'Plastic, like diamonds, is forever: time to use fewer bags', resulted in a number of comments about what people would use as bin liners if plastic bags were banned and about then having to buy bin liners.

But why do we need to line our bin with plastic? A plastic bag is totally unnecessary. We put our rubbish in a small indoor plastic bin and then when it's full we transfer it to a larger outdoor bin, which is eventually tipped into a garbage truck. Why do we need the plastic bag?

Instead of using a plastic bag we place newspaper in the base of our bin* and when it's full we pick up the bin and take it outside and tip it in the garbage bin. Simple.

What goes in our bin is mostly dry because we also have a small bin for worm scraps, another for compost, and a third for the guinea pigs and chickens.

Have you managed to wean yourself off using plastic shopping bags? What do you put your rubbish in?

*I have to be honest - we still use plastic bags when we have them, and recently that's been far too often. The article was the reminder I needed to get back in the habit of always having reuseable bags in my handbag. Although, I'm not the worst offender in our household. A little note to Daddy Eco: remember those lovely masculine reusable bags I bought you a while ago? Use them ;-)