We’re here to (trash)talk about one of the world’s most ubiquitous trashy items: garbage bags. Specifically, recycled trash bags. Because even the most hardcore low-waste living advocates find total waste reduction to be the most challenging aspect of greenifying one’s home routines.
With enough discarded items already facing the landfill, the plastic trash bag itself is one of the biggest contributors to microplastics, GHGs, and fossil fuel use on our planet.
Sure, we see countless reusable, recyclable, paper, biodegradable, and compostable options, but this means little by way of a real green solution, a lessened carbon footprint, reduced landfill waste, or fewer GHG emissions. That’s because anything organic or bio-based decomposes anaerobically in a landfill (as opposed to aerobically in a composter), which releases methane gas that is much more potent in terms of climate warming potential than CO2.
Recycled garbage bags may not break down any differently than virgin plastic ones, but at least they’ve lived a life or two before the inevitable dumpster-graveyard. They also reduce the need to use petroleum to produce new plastic and prevent the release of methane.
So ‘eco-friendly’ trash bags may still be an oxymoron, but there are at least more sustainable garbage bags than others and to find them, we’re unrolling our new Brand Rating System. While obviously use of recycled materials will still be criteria #1 for this list, this system also means we’ll examine the brands 22 total criteria, like climate action and positive social impact. See our explainer here for all the dirty details.
We independently research all featured brands and we ask them to confirm their claims. In many cases we personally review recommended products. This post contains affiliate links which means we may earn a commission if you buy something. Learn more here.
The Best Eco-Friendly Trash Bags Made From Recycled Plastic
Popular eco-home-hub Grove Collaborative offers some of the top recycled garbage bags today, featuring zero virgin plastic.
Beyond their recycled bags with 10% sugarcane plastic, Green Polly recently released a 100% post-consumer recycled content bag, which tickles us green with happiness.
Index: Recycled Plastic Trash Bag Brands
- Eco Renew Jump to brand
- GreenPolly Jump to brand
- Grove Co Jump to brand
- EvolutionBags Jump to brand
- Stout Jump to brand
- Earthsense Jump to brand
- simplehuman Jump to brand
Eco Renew
Price Range: $23
Eco Renew by Enpack offersTall Kitchen TwistTie Kitchen Bags made from 100% recycled plastic and 30% post-consumer recycled content, so your trash can feel a little less dubious being sent to the landfill.
These thick, unscented 13-gallon recycled plastic garbage bags are multipurpose and usable for home, office, kitchen, lawn, commercially or industrially.
They claim they’re made in the USA, but we found at least one reviewer concerned they’re actually made in China, so we’ll be reaching out for more details from Enpack.
GreenPolly
Price Range: $5–$20
GreenPolly offers some of the first of its kind: eco-friendly trash bags made from 80–90% post-consumer plastic and 10–20% bioplastic made of sugarcane. The brand has also just released their first ever 100% post-consumer recycled content bags, certified by SCS.
Bags come with drawstrings and hold 13 gallons, which fits most trash can styles.
Packaged in recyclable cardboard and shipped in packaging made from recycled content, and the brand has donated more than 215,000 recycled plastic trash bags to communities in need of waste stream support.
Grove Co
Price Range: $7–$8
Grove Co’s BPA-free recycled trash bags are sustainably made from reclaimed plastics already headed to the landfill—zero virgin plastic here. Bags are offered with an easy tie top and two trash can sizes—4-gallon or 13-gallon. Due to the mixture of recovered materials, color variations may occur from trash bag to trash bag. Rest assured, all are equal quality and highly durable.
The bags are manufactured in partnership with WasteZero, a Certified B Corp intent to cut trash down by 50% in the US by collecting single-use plastic waste to convert it into durable and strong trash bags.
Itself a Certified B Corp, Grove sells more than 150 other sustainable brands of home cleaning and personal care products, in addition to its own highly rated in-house brand of things like eco-friendly dishwasher tablets.
Product shipping is carbon offset through reforestation projects, and all purchases are plastic neutral via rePurpose Global. Grove aims to be 100% plastic free by 2025 and publishes annual impact reports to ensure transparency.
EvolutionBags
Price Range: $27
Keep evolution from total extinction with EvolutionBags 13-gallon white kitchen bags, made from 70% certified post-consumer recycled LLDPE (linear low-density polyethylene). They’re created with the highest percentage of third-party certified post-consumer recycled materials via a closed loop recycling process that ensures superior quality and minimal virgin plastics.
These sustainable garbage bags are EPA compliant, UL ECOLOGO certified, and SCS Global Services Certified as made of recycled materials. They also qualify for LEED building projects and partner with a large crop irrigation company to recycle the plastic tubing from their agricultural water tubes after use, a process that keeps over 200 million pounds of plastic waste from landfills annually.
Made and shipped in the USA with only recyclable shipping materials, the brand also recently joined 1% For the Planet, and have donated almost $10,000 to date to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.
Stout
Price Range: $30–$140
Say goodbye to trashy trash bags that create more mess and hello to strong and affordable waste management. Stout by Envision’s Total Recycled Content Plastic Trash Bags are made from 100% recycled polymer resins, with at least 30% post-consumer recycled material.
These bags are so sturdy, they’re useful for work, home, commercial, or industrial use across a wide range of brown or black size options: 10, 33 45, 60, and 65 gallons.
Envision is a uniquely socially responsible American company employing an almost entirely sight-impaired staff. They also provide outreach, rehabilitation, education and research for the blind and visually impaired.
Earthsense
Price Range: $15–$89
Earthsense makes clear, white, and black trash bags a little more sensible for the Earth, thanks to their trash bin liners and trash bags in a a huge range of sizes and bag types available, including extra heavyweight up to 2 millimeters thick.
All are Certified Recycled Content by SCS Global Services. Clear bags have at least 50% reprocessed resins and at least 30% post-consumer resins, while black and white bags contain 75% reprocessed resins and at least 10% post-consumer resins.
For those in building and construction, using this brand can help with government bids when recycled content is required and also may qualify for LEED sustainability points.
Earthsense is a brand of Berry Global, who offer a transparent sustainability strategy, align themselves with the UN’s SDGs, seek to minimize product impacts, are finding ways to minimize operational impacts, have an ethics and compliance program and openly publish corporate responsibility reports.
They’re also one of the largest specialist plastic recyclers in the UK through Berry Circular Polymers with ISO 14001 and ISO 9001 accreditation.
simplehuman
Price Range: $20
Being a human nowadays isn’t always simple, but simplehuman’s 50% Post-Consumer Recycled Plastic High Performance Trash Liners are here to help.
These black kitchen trash bags help keep plastic out of our oceans, carbon out of our atmosphere, and bad smells out of your home with their 50% PCR plastic that is carbon-infused to naturally absorb garbage odors. These recycled unscented garbage bags are thick and have a double-seam construction to prevent rips and tears, no matter how full of stuff the bags are.
Trash bag packaging comes simple(human) with a recycling cardboard box and bags easily removed one-by-one from a large roll.
While Japan’s iconic trash can brand hasn’t always been known for its sustainability, today simplehuman is improving their eco-friendliness by making high performance products with more recyclable materials and less impact.
