The Madison Common Council on Tuesday night approved an ordinance requiring residents to take unsoiled plastic bags in for recycling. The ordinance bans throwing clean plastic bags away in the trash, but it allows people to throw away used, soiled plastic bags.

Often seen as a progressive city, San Francisco took the initiative in 2007 to ban plastic bags from large supermarkets and chain pharmacies in the city and county of San Francisco.

Looking for an easy way* to recycle your old or used plastic bags?

These are a couple of excellent websites for locating your nearest recycling center, which in most instances will be your nearest grocery store.

http://earth911.com/
On Earth911, you can enter your state, city or zip code in order to locate your nearest recycling center.

In January 2008, New York City passed a bill requiring that large retailers and chain shops using plastic bags recycle them for consumers.

Currently, New Yorkers are using 1 billion bags per year. Having convenient recycling facilities will greatly help cut down on the waste and litter from all those bags.

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