How does a purple Concord trash bag compare to a name-brand bag? The Monitor tested them to find out.
Published: 01-15-2025 4:31 PM
Modified: 01-16-2025 10:41 AM |
Roughly 16 years after Concord instituted a pay-as-you-throw trash program, residents are torn over how effective the program is, whether or not they like the bags themselves and the cost.
Some say the bags work great and they use them minimally because they’re placing much household waste in their recycling bins. Others, however, wish the program was different, and instead, residents could use their own bags and place an approved sticker on them.
One common complaint is that the bags are too flimsy and prone to rip and tear.
Mark Dancy, chief executive officer of WasteZero, the company that manufactures Concord’s purple trash bags said they’re designed to get your garbage from your home to the curb without falling apart.
While brands like Hefty and Glad are far cheaper, Dancy said the purple bags are made thicker because people using Hefty or Glad bags often don’t pack them to the brim.
“With pay-as-you-throw bags, because of the premium that the city charges we know that people are going to overstuff them and so they need to be made to handle that,” said Dancy. “Our bags would test out better in terms of strength characteristics.”
The Monitor decided to put two trash bags to the test – a purple bag and a Hefty bag to find out which one held up the best. Both claim to be tough, but only a hands-on trial could settle the score.
We used 15-gallon bags filled with different amounts of cat litter because it is a heavy yet uniform material that could provide a consistent test. (We started by loading them with newspapers, which did snag and stretch the plastic of both bags, which caused inconsistent results.)
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For reference, the 15-gallon purple bags are said to hold up to 10 pounds while the 30-gallon bags are advertised for 20 pounds, according to the city’s website.
We started by filling the purple and Hefty bags with 20 pounds of cat litter.
Using their handles, we hung the bags on a sturdy metal rod. At first glance, both bags held up under the weight, but the strain was noticeable. The handles on each bag stretched, with the purple bag showing just a bit more give than the Hefty.
When we switched to carrying the bags by the neck, avoiding the handles, the results were the same: minor stretching but no tearing. So far, it was a draw.
Next, we increased the load to 40 pounds of cat litter to push the bags further.
This time, the handles on both bags snapped before they could be hung up. However, when we scrunched up the necks of the bags to lift them, both managed to hold the weight.
That said, the integrity of the bags began to diverge. The Hefty bag stretched significantly and looked like it could rip. In contrast, the purple bag held up better, with only minor visible stretching visible.
To mimic objects with sharp edges like empty juice boxes commonly thrown in the trash, we filled the purple bag with newspapers and added a fork. When lifted, the fork pierced through the purple bag with little resistance.
However, with all the variables in household trash, it was difficult to replicate a durability test evenly.
Overall, the purple bag proved to be comparable to the Hefty bag in strength. It even outperformed the Hefty during the 40-pound test, showing less flimsiness under heavy weight.
Over the past three years, WasteZero has sold 2.25 million bags in Concord with just six replacement requests from retail stores.
“That doesn’t mean that there haven’t been other complaints we didn’t hear about,” said Dancy. “We don’t want anybody to have a bad experience, and certainly if they do, we want to hear about it.”
Sruthi Gopalakrishnan can be reached at sgopalakrishnan@cmonitor.com