A little while ago I wrote a post about my favorite reusable sandwich bags. Hopefully seeing how many awesome and affordable alternatives there are inspired you to make the switch from disposable plastic sandwich baggies! Or perhaps you already made the switch on your own and if so, hurray! But what about all the existing plastic snack bags you may already have in your home? Or that continue to make their way to you through other people? Can you upcycle plastic sandwich bags?

Obviously you can wash them out and reuse them for more food items.

But there comes a point where they start to feel unsanitary for food, and I get that. After all, you can’t wash them in boiling hot water to kill bacteria since it’s plastic and unhealthy to do so.

But there’s still life left in these plastic food bags for other uses.

While your city may have a recycling program, it may not specifically include recycling of plastic lunch bags. Mine sadly doesn’t. Don’t throw them out! You may not want to wash them out in boiling hot water, but you can still rinse them out with soap and water so they’re clean of food. And there’s still more life left in these plastic baggies, especially if you have children.

Here are some great ways you can upcycle plastic sandwich bags for kids:

 

Puzzle Storage:

My son loves puzzles, so I have bought a lot of them (mostly second-hand) over the years. And while they are typically eco-friendly and made out of cardboard including the container, they also tend to be bulky. Our toy shelves were overflowing with puzzle boxes until I figured out this plastic sandwich bag hack.

By storing the puzzle pieces in a plastic sandwich bag, you save a ton of shelf space! It also makes it easier to match a stray piece since you can see immediately what the pieces inside look like.

TIP: Cut the puzzle picture off the box (if it’s small enough) or take a picture of it and print a smaller version.

LEGO Sets:

Even if your child – or let’s be honest, your husband – has completed a particular lego set, they always seem to come with extra pieces. Usually the smallest pieces. The pieces that you will totally accidentally step on with bare feet.

Put them in a plastic storage bag with the instruction manual and throw the bag in a box until your child is done with it and you can resell everything as a fully complete set.

Playing Cards & Board Game Pieces

One of my pet peeves is opening up a board game box and seeing the pieces scattered all over the inside. You end up spending time sorting it all out before you can start the game, which is a real drag especially if you’ve got younger kids with short attention spans. Put the game pieces in individual plastic bags when you’re done playing, and you won’t have to waste time separating them next time!

And while a rubber band works well for holding playing cards together, my little ones have trouble figuring out how to wrap them around the cards securely. But they can easily put them in a plastic sandwich bag, which is great because you can delegate post-UNO clean up to them!

 

Mailing Label Envelopes

This one isn’t kid-specific per say, but I do find that I buy a lot of their items online nowadays, like…basically everything under the sun from Amazon. Whenever I need to return an item, I usually have to print out the return mailing label and attach it to the package somehow. One day I was feeling too lazy to go to the store to get a brand new plastic mailing label envelope, and then…inspiration struck.

You can recycle a plastic sandwich bag for printed mailing labels!

 

And by the way, I hope you know that most plastic mail bags come with an extra stripe of sticky adhesive? This is so that you can reuse the bag for a return, or another purpose.

 

Tissues & Napkins

Well, my transformation into a mom is complete: I always seem to have spare tissues and napkins rattling around in my purse. Or rather, diaper bag. I’m expected to always have something on hand to wipe a runny nose, clean dirty fingers, or wrap a half-eaten snack in. “Keep this for later mom.” Okaaaaaay.

Storing them in a plastic sandwich bag not only makes my purse feel less disorganized, keeps the items cleaner, and in better shape so they last longer. It also keeps them dry in case something spills in there, which, since I’m a mom, there’s always a 47% likelihood of happening TBH.

 

Crayons & Little Play Toys

Nowadays, many family-friendly restaurants will provide your children with crayons and a paper mat to draw on. But there are still some that do not, especially when we’re traveling. So I always carry a little plastic sandwich bag of spare crayons (usually saved from prior restaurant visits) and little toys (like rubber stamps, finger puzzles, and plastic trinkets we’ve received in goody bags that I am loathe to throw straight into the trash).

Bonus: Now that we’ve amassed a good collection of crayons in the plastic baggie, we can refuse the new set that the restaurant offers in a small effort towards reducing overall waste.

 

Wet Clothes

Also file this under the “now that I’m a mom” category, I never know when I’ll find myself with muddy or wet kids clothing. I’ve seen some moms just throw clothes out because they didn’t have a way to bring the soiled item home to wash. But, being an eco-friendly mama, I just cannot bring myself to do that. Not when I have the best eco-friendly stain remover spray at home to use.

So, I try to keep a spare plastic sandwich baggie in my purse for such emergencies. And to be real, with my kids being in love with mud and water, I reach for this extra bag pretty regularly.

 

Travel-Size Toiletries

If you’ve read my post about why I stopped collecting mini hotel toiletries, you know that I now bring my own refillable containers when we travel. To make sure they don’t leak all over my clothing in the suitcase (which has happened with even factory-sealed brand new toiletries), I put them in a plastic sandwich bag.

I’ve actually re-used the same plastic sandwich bag for years of traveling with toiletries. In fact, I’m pretty sure that plastic sandwich bag is older than my daughter!

 

Bagel Bags

Ok, this last one is pretty specific, I admit. But here’s the backstory. I’m originally from New York City but have lived in California now since 2005. While SoCal has a ton of awesome features I love about it like beautiful nature, super fun attractions for kids, and delicious restaurants, there are some things that New York just does better than anywhere else. And bagels is at the top of that list. SoCal just does not know how to make a really good bagel.

As if that weren’t bad enough, I happened to grow up a short walk from the best bagel store in NYC. So my dad, in his quietly loving way, buys me two dozen fresh bagels every time he flies out to visit. Unfortunately for the planet, he likes to seal them each individually in plastic snack bags so they stay fresh on the journey.

And so, I’ve taken to wiping the bags out and giving them back to him before his return flight home for reuse, thus ensuring the circle of bagels continues to roll my way.

Have another way you upcycle plastic sandwich bags? Please let me know in the comments. I’d love to hear your stories!

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