[Alan]

Those thin plastic bags with handles that you get from the gocery, hardware store, drug store, and everywhere do pile up. Many people just throw 'em away, but that's environmentally unfriendly, even if they ARE thin--and besides, lots of folks want to keep a few around to use for various things. But where to put 'em?

I made myself a very useful storage device, cheap. It could probably be mass produced cheaply.

I took a piece of 3" drainpipe I had on hand (available at Home Depot etc.; about 3-4 bucks for a 10' length) and cut it into sections about 14" long. I glued 4 of these together in a row, using silicone glue/sealer, then glued some velcro tape on the back and stuck it to the side of my fridge.

I used the kind of pipe that has holes in it to make the bag level visible. It's stuck on the fridge in a vertical position, but it could also be placed horizontally or diagonally of course. The stuff is easy to cut with a hand saw. Available in black or white; could probably be painted.

After emptying a bag, just stuff it in one of the tubes (I use one tube for each size of bag). Many bags will fit in each tube (if they start coming out the bottom, just hold a hand over it while stuffing a bag in at the top; they compress quite a bit). You can pull a bag out from either top or bottom. When there are too many, just grab one bag and stuff it with others and take it to one of the many places that'll recycle 'em.

[The_Wise]

Easier solution to the plastic bag problem........an old Kleenex box.