Kitchen recycling tip: Cereal box liners

Fri, Dec 05 2008 at 12:32 PM EST

Chances are by now, you’ve gotten good at recycling the easy stuff in your kitchen - glass, paper, cardboard, plastic bottles. Those aren’t the only things that are reusable or recyclable in your kitchen. Many of the things are. The liners from cereal boxes are one of them. Instead of just throwing them in the trash, save them and use them at least one more time before they hit the trashcan.

Cut them along the seems, and they turn into rectangles that you can use much like wax paper. You can roll out cookie or pie dough beneath them or place them between pre-shaped burgers before freezing just like you would wax paper.
Use them as a disposal bag for dirty diapers.
Instead of using a Ziploc bag when you’re making a shake and bake type item, shake your food in a cereal box liner.
Crush crackers or nuts in them.
When you are cleaning up after your dog or scooping out the cat liter, these liners will do the trick.
Put sandwiches and wraps in them when you’re brown bagging it.
When you’re dipping strawberries or pretzels in chocolate, place them on the cereal bag liners while the chocolate hardens.

I’ve seen suggestions to use them in the microwave to cook hotdogs in or cover food so it doesn’t splatter, but these liners are plastic. I have gotten away from heating up food in anything plastic. Plastics contain chemicals, and it is easier for the chemicals to leech into foods and beverages when the plastic gets heated.

Cereal box liners are usually made of High Density Polyethylene (HDPE), the #2 plastic when comes to recycling. That means that most curbside recycling programs that take #2 plastics will take cereal box liners. Double check with your community’s recycling rules before adding them to your recyclables.