Little plastic component bags

[stevie1556]

Just looking for some advice here. At the moment there are a few fairly big recycling campaigns and campaigns against single use plastic, and my company is starting to make big changes to stop using it as much as possible. I've recently started building pedals again and already have a lot of those little plastic component bags left over. With them being the wrong type of plastic to be recycled, does anyone have a way to either reuse them or do anything creative with them, etc?

[Rockhorst]

Wow, great question! Didn't know they are the wrong type of plastic.

[Boba7]

Good question, I've been wondering too, especially when I order from Tayda, I feel bad about all those plastic bags...

[reddesert]

I mostly wind up using them to sort and store other little things, including but not limited to pedal stuff. Like clipped-off leads for jumpers, screws, ibuprofen and earplugs that I take when hiking/traveling, etc ... Obviously, the real way to use them up would be to make hundreds of micro-sandwiches.

My feeling about environmental impact is that it mostly depends on mass of a given substance (plus visual impact). So I worry more about big things that wind up in the trash than lots of little things.

[somnif]

Why, I use them to package drugs for re-sale and distribution of course! Everyone knows 180k Ohm methamphetamine is the finest around!

(note: I am kidding)

I have used them to store samples of fungus infected plants I have found on hikes before (I worked in a mycology lab for a while), and organizing small things like peel off labels or screws.

But, even with all that I still have a big bag of tayda pouches just sitting in my parts bin.

[davent]

Is it the wrong type of plastic or is it because of the zip piece incorporated into them. I've always ripped that zip bit off and put it in the garbage, the 'bag' with the other plastic recycling.

What's accepted is going to vary greatly from place to place.
dave

[chromesphere]

Id like to extend this conversation a little further...

It is expected when ordering parts from a supplier that everything will come individually bagged and labelled.  1 transistor.  5 resistors.  I go through probably 500-1000 of ziplock bags a month.  Imagine the volume the larger retailers are using... :|

I have always thought this to be such a HUGE waste of the earths resources.

The problem unfortunately lies with the customers expectations.  I would be happy to supply all components in the same bag, it would obviously save me a lot of time.  But I don't think people would go for this.

I'd also be open to another way of doing this that doesn't use so much plastic, but I cant for the life of me work out another way.

[somnif]

Id like to extend this conversation a little further...

It is expected when ordering parts from a supplier that everything will come individually bagged and labelled.  1 transistor.  5 resistors.  I got through probably 500-1000 of ziplock bags a month.  Imagine the volume the larger retailers are using... :|

I have always thought this to be such a HUGE waste of the earths resources.

The problem unfortunately lies with the customers expectations.  I would be happy to supply all components in the same bag, it would obviously save me a lot of time.  But I don't think people would go for this.

I'd also be open to another way of doing this that doesn't use so much plastic, but I cant for the life of me work out another way.

The electronics store near me uses paper envelopes for components. Greener, I suppose, but also pricier. As for just dumping everything in one bag, it has its problems. Some parts have obscure labeling and it could make sorting things maddening.

[chromesphere]

Yes, cost is a concern.  When your packing 30c worth of resistors into a bag with little margin, the actual cost of the bag needs to be considered.

One bag for everything obviously wouldn't work.  Even having multiple values of the same component wouldn't be very user friendly either (try sorting through 100 resistors all dumped in the same bag, that's a pain).  Its difficult to find a solution to this problem...reusing the ziplocks is probably the best idea so far.

[mjg]

Paul,

I tend to keep and reuse the bags that I get from your store, as they are narrow enough to fit in my component draws.  The ones from Tayda are slightly too wide, so I end up having to throw most of them. 

For things that have their own label, I'd be happy with no bag (or one big bag). For example, I don't need individual bags for each type of pot I buy from Tayda. 
For resistors, caps, diodes, if I'm buying them in a strip of 5 or more, I'd be happy with the value written on the strip, and no bag. 

I guess places like Tayda have feedback forms - if enough customers bring it up with them, they may decide to offer alternatives?

[alanp]

Maybe those small paper bags that the local dairy used to use?

You know, you'd go into the shop as a little kid who had just been given a whole twenty cents, and ask for a twenty cent mixture, and the man would put 20 cents worth of lollies into a little paper bag for you, maybe 10cm square.

[cooder]

I got through probably 500-1000 of ziplock bags a month.  Imagine the volume the larger retailers are using... :|

I have always thought this to be such a HUGE waste of the earths resources.

The problem unfortunately lies with the customers expectations.  I would be happy to supply all components in the same bag, it would obviously save me a lot of time.  But I don't think people would go for this.

I'd also be open to another way of doing this that doesn't use so much plastic, but I cant for the life of me work out another way.

Like Alan I also think paper bags would be great, value could be written on bag. I can't see why that would be more expensive than plastic... but then I haven't researched wholesale prices of paper or plastic packaging.

It would be great if pressure is appliedv from several sides, customers wanting a feasible greener option and packaging industry providing such alternatives (there's for hoping...).
I don't find the ziplocks very useful to have in workshop and when I get a Tayda delivery I also unpack and sort them in my srorage system, leaving the ziplocks to go in the soft plastic recycling that has recently been introduced here. Which really isn't great recycling as far as I know. Avoiding plastic bags would be a better alternative I believe. Paper is easier to recycle as long as it's not contaminated I believe.
And as the last resort I can use the paper bags to light the log burner (right now it's winter here...).

[chromesphere]

A few problems with paper bags I can think of:
1) they require sticky tape (otherwise components will probably fall out).  You would probably destroy the bag when you open it trying to remove the sticky tape.
2) they often don't come in small sizes (at least from what I've seen)
3) they seem to be more expensive then plastic (how that works is beyond me...)

Plastic single use bags in Australia are now banned, im hoping packaging companies can think of new products to replace not just single use bags but a lot plastic products in general (including ziplocks).

[mjg]

Another thing that gets me is the excessive packaging from some places.  I know it's been mentioned before by others. 

Here's one I got last week.  I ordered 20 x 1/8 watt resistors.  They came in a monster size padded bag that's about 40cm long.  The bubble wrap is glued to the inside of the cardboard envelope, so you can't even separate the stuff to recycle it. 

[Muadzin]

Even having multiple values of the same component wouldn't be very user friendly either (try sorting through 100 resistors all dumped in the same bag, that's a pain)

That's basically what BYOC did for years. I don't know if they still do this, but whenever I ordered one of their kits I had to spend hours sorting out the resistors and caps.