Cheap trash bags are no bargain if they split open on the way to the garbage can, spilling their contents and leaving a mess for you to clean up. How do you select the right bag for your needs?

 

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• Beware of price extremes. If a bag is really inexpensive, it’s likely to be too flimsy for household trash. On the other hand, pricey bags could be a lot stronger than what you really need. Consumer tests have shown that store-brand bags perform well at significantly lower prices than name-brand offerings. This is a single-use product, after all, so don’t buy more bag than you need.

• Check product labeling. Generally, the thicker the bag, the stronger it is. Thickness is measured in mils, or thousandths of an inch. Bags of less than 1 mil are quite thin, while a bag that is 3 mils thick is heavy duty.

•Think globally, save money? Some folks who favor recycling as much material as possible re-use plastic sacks from supermarkets and other retailers as garbage bags. This approach saves money and reduces the volume of material deposited in landfills. However, keep in mind these bags were initially "stressed" when they held your purchases. The thin, high density plastic found in most grocery sacks splits easily. Examine grocery bags before storing them for re-use; discard torn, split or heavily stressed bags, which are likely to fail altogether. The softer, polyethylene-based bags used by some other retailers are generally more resistant to tearing and splitting.