Most of us sometimes have to use plastic bags, but they certainly can make a mess. And they’re made from oil. So it’s good to know that the bags (including, we emphasize, the ones used to protect copies of The Providence Journal!) can be recycled at all major grocery stores in Rhode Island, the only state that has a unified free recycling program for plastic film and plastic bags. This is under the state’s ReStore program, which provides plastic-bag-collection containers at more than 170 retailers.

Recycled plastic bags are usually made into new bags. They can also be mixed with used wood to make a composite material to make such things as park benches.

Meanwhile, why not whenever possible bring your own permanent canvas or other bags to the store instead of using the store’s paper or plastic bags? The Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation estimates that Rhode Islanders consume 192 million plastic grocery bags a year — many of which become litter or kill animals, and all of which are made from oil. And paper bags, for their part, also cost a lot of fossil fuel to make, ship and recycle.

In Europe, many people bring their own bags — a habit we’d be wise to emulate.