Anyone who's used to actually preparing their food and not just opening a box, knows the importance of a good compost bag, especially in the heart of the summer.
To help you choose one with the least amount of "yuck" elements, we're putting three different companies to the test: Pickering's own Bag to Nature (which proudly calls itself the strongest), Glad, and Husky - found in Home Depot. All three are Compostable Biodegradable products, accepted in municipal compost programs.
For the test, we've equally dispersed scraps -- some chicken bones, paper towels, coffee filters and grinds, peels from perfectly ripe fruit used in an office fruit salad, and discount cut-up vegetables. We'll let this mixture mellow out over the weekend and check on the bins Monday morning. What I'm looking for is sweat and strength of the bags -- there's nothing that grosses me out more than carrying a dripping bag to the outside compost bin.
On Tuesday night, I'll get the waste ready for compost pick up and determine which is the easiest to remove and the driest -- basically, which bag grosses me out the least.
First observations:
Husky: $3.99 for a box of 30 from Home Depot, manufactured in the USA.
Glad: $4.99 for 20 at Freshco. No manufacture location that I can see, it just says distributed by The Clorox Company of Canada in Brampton.
Bag to Nature: $3.99 for 20 on Indaco's website and from its office space in Pickering. Made in Canada, Indaco Manufacturing Limited, Pickering.
Note: Although the bags are all about the same size (Husky 40.6 X 45.7 cm; Glad 41.4 X 41.9 cm; Bag to Nature: 43.2 X 40.6 cm), the Husky seems to have the least amount of overhang, which will make it hard to tie on garbage day, and the Bag to Nature has the most. The local brand also feels the most like plastic.

I'm interested in the results!
Posted by: Sandra | 06/08/2011 at 02:45 PM