Can I throw away plastic-film wrapping? Here's how a Brown County recycling expert answers that question

A new, unopened case of toilet paper. A bag of lettuce. The protective seal on dozens of household products and food containers.

Our lives are covered in plastic film. Open your pantry, refrigerator or desk drawer. There’s more plastic there than you realized.

Plastic film, casings and wrapping are everywhere. As consumers, it’s unavoidable. These barriers are used to keep products safe from contamination or damage before purchase, but how do we keep them from doing the same to the environment?

As tempting as it is to simply toss the pieces of plastic film in the garbage, it’s not the best thing to do. On windy days, garbage bins can blow open and individual pieces of plastic film can be easily picked up by the wind.

This quickly becomes a big litter problem, especially with tiny plastic films like those that cover a new pack of gum or the tiny, hard plastic seal on a new tube of mascara. These small items, along with larger things like dog food bags, the wrapping around multipacks of tissues, toy packaging, bread bags and many more can quickly make a mess in our community or at the landfill if the wind gets ahold of them. If you look around, it’s not unusual to see piles of plastic stacked along fence lines, landscaping and buildings.

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What’s the solution? There are several environmentally responsible approaches you can take.

► Many grocery stores, big box or department stores have designated drop-off spots to recycle clean plastic bags and film. Simply fill a plastic bag with other clean bags, packaging or film, tie the handles together to keep it compact and tidy, and drop it off.

Putting everything in a single bag so it’s compact is called densifying and it helps prevent film and light plastics from floating away with the wind. A list of retail locations that accept plastic bags can be found at www.plasticfilmrecycling.com.

► If you can’t find a local recycler, you can throw plastic bags and film away in your garbage, BUT we ask that you still use the compacting/densifying method as described above.

► It’s also important to pay attention to what you’re buying and see if you can purchase items that aren’t wrapped in plastic. While small produce items at the grocery store, like grapes and Brussels sprouts, need a container to keep them from rolling around your shopping cart, purchasing a couple of apples or larger foods are easier to manage without a bag. An alternative for holding smaller foods in the shopping cart is to pick up reusable produce bags or mesh shopping bags.

► Speaking of shopping bags and single-use plastics, canvas tote bags remain a wonderful option for shopping and many stores offer a small discount for each reusable bag you use at checkout.

► And consider reusable sandwich, quart and gallon-size bags for your snack items and food storage. All these approaches help keep films and plastics out of the garbage and landfill.

By properly taking care of the little things in life — like plastics and film — we can make a big difference in our environment. For more recycling tips, follow Brown County Resource Recovery on Facebook, @browncountyrecycling.

Mark Walter is the business development manager for Brown County Resource Recovery.

This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Can I recycle plastic wrap? Brown County recycling expert gives tips