Can Newspaper Prevent Trash Bag Leaks? We Tried This Hack To See If It Holds Water

You're cleaning up, putting the dishes away, wiping down your countertops, taking out your trash, and just as you pull the bag from the bin, something wet drops onto your leg or foot. You can't help but cringe. Calling it trash juice may not be the most pleasant term, but it certainly sums up the gross liquids that can accumulate and seep through bin liners. If you've ever been the victim of this accumulation of moisture that makes your stomach roil, then there may be a trick to help you. As usual, the internet has come through with a clever hack that suggests layering the bottom of your trashcan liner bags with newspaper. The newspaper is meant to help absorb all the liquids that seep off everything from food waste to drinks and keep odors at bay.

Since the internet can get it really right sometimes and other times very wrong, I decided to try out this simple solution so I'd never have to get trash juice on myself again (hopefully). Created using mostly wood pulp, newspaper is made to absorb moisture, or rather ink, and can actually soak up and hold a decent amount of liquid, which is why it works for this hack. It's absorbency is not as potent as paper towels or napkins, per se, but as long as you're not dropping full drinks into your garbage can liners, it should help with vegetables, pastas or other starchy foods, and anything that contains oils and grease contributing to leakage.

While some suggest using newspapers to clean your mirrors, this hack might become your new way to use them. To prepare, I grabbed a pack of Hefty Ultra Strong trash bags. They are made to resist leaks, but this would put that theory to the test, too. We usually use the plastic bags from grocery stores in our trash cans, so the first thing to do was buy real bin liners (adulting) that offered extra thick materials. I also had to actually buy a newspaper, which was a new task in itself. Aside from the free versions on public transport, I don't receive my own newspaper bundles. I found a newspaper at a bookstore and purchased it for $3, but there were more than enough pages to use for several trash loads.

I chose to use two sheets of newspaper, so I pulled these from the bundle and set them aside. I also grabbed one Hefty bag and some leftover food from the fridge that needed throwing away. One was a brown paper wrap of shrimp, which needed to be disposed of, and some eggshells that had just been used for breakfast. Both of these had the potential to drip in my bin liners, especially while waiting to be disposed of in the larger trash cans and taken away.

The actual hack was simple. I added the plastic bag to my kitchen trash can, ensuring it was patted down to fill the entire bin. This made it easier to line the bottom and a little ways up the sides with newspaper. I made sure the two sheets were layered along the base of the bag before pushing them into the edges of the trash can to create a basin. I figured this would help catch more moisture as the bag filled up. 

I started by adding a tiny amount of water to the newspaper just to check out that it absorbed. I threw in shrimp and eggs, the former of which was surely going to leak (yuck). Then I continued adding food. This ranged from fruit and vegetable trimmings to leftover pasta that had been in Tupperware, which also collects water inside. I allowed the accumulation to remain in the bag for a couple of hours. We usually finish most of our food, so there wasn't a lot of variation beyond this to add. When I finally pulled the bag out three or four hours later, nothing dripped. I did peak inside and noted that the newspaper was saturated.

Some people use newspapers as emergency trash can liners when they run out of the real thing, so it makes sense they can also help line the bags. Make sure to try this with a clean bin bag and ensure your trash can doesn't have any liquids in it already. You could probably use one newspaper over a couple weeks with this hack if you only add a few sheets per trash bag. While it may create an extra step to line your trash bags, it's a relatively easy one compared to the clean up required when liquids leak all over your trash can and floor. 

This also helps keep moisture from collecting in your larger bins, which can be even trickier (not to mention more work) to clean. As a great way to repurpose old newspaper around the house, why not give yourself a little less stress? While not necessarily eco-friendly – newspaper is usually a recyclable material, meaning you are creating more waste by lining trash bags since the paper cannot be recovered or recycled — it does serve a good purpose in keeping your home tidier. I was impressed (and relieved) by the effectiveness and will be using this hack myself from now on to keep everything a little less gross and a lot more dry.