Best Trash Bags

These trash bags surpassed the performance of the others in the first batch of tests. They resisted tearing from both blunt and sharp objects better than other models on this list, and they were the strongest when filled with water. They weren’t impervious to tearing, though—they eventually ripped during our water test.

Most Simplehuman trash bags are designed to fit Simplehuman trash cans, but they can still be used with other cans. The bag we tried could fit the average kitchen trash can with a 13-gallon capacity. 

Great Value trash bags are, indeed, a great value. Not only are they inexpensive, but they’re pretty strong, too. Like all the bags we tested, these did eventually rip, but they held out longer than most. This was true particularly during the blunt object test, in which we pierced the bag to observe how well the plastic held up.

These clear bags are dirt cheap. “At 5 cents per bag, they were the least expensive by far,” said José Amézquita, the lead tester for our evaluation—and they were “reli”able, too. The Reli bags have strong sides and were able to withstand the blunt object test well, but they performed the worst of all the bags when tested with sharp objects. They’re also spacious, so they’d be a great choice for people with lots of trash. But the Reli bags don’t have drawstrings, so you need to be comfortable tying these large trash bags closed with just a knot.

“Reli trash bags are an excellent buy,” Amézquita said. 

These are middle-of-the-road bags in terms of performance, but at 21 cents a bag, they’re the second most expensive of the ones we tested. They performed decently well at resisting tearing from blunt objects, but they were not especially tough against sharp objects, and they weren’t especially strong overall. These bags are a “buy them if you’re at Target and just remembered you need trash bags” buy. But they’re probably not the ones to seek out if you want to protect your kitchen floor from the possibility of being splattered with the remains of last night’s dinner.

The name might remind you of Paul Bunyan, but the performance will not. While these bags did fine against blunt objects, the drawstrings, sides, and bottom were weak. 

Its slightly below-average price may not be enough to excuse its rather below-average performance, with a poor ability to withstand sharp objects, in particular. That said, these Kirkland Signature bags have an impressive drawstring that’s stronger than most of the drawstrings on the other bags in our evaluation. 

These little bags—the smallest in our test—ripped at the top. They had a flimsy drawstring and, at 20 cents a bag, were the third most expensive in our tests.

The Amazon Basics trash bags had the weakest sides and bottom of all the bags we tried. They were weak at the top, too, where one ripped during our tests. These bags came out to 13 cents apiece, making them more expensive than one of our top performers, the Reli trash bag.

According to the company, this bag “breaks down in weeks—not centuries,” but according to our tests, they might break down even faster. Despite being considerably more expensive than any other bag in our tests, these performed the very worst, scoring at the bottom for everything except the tests for sharp objects and the strength of the walls and bottom. “If you compost, consider the HoldOn Compostable Tall Kitchen Trash Bags,” Amézquita said. “However, you will be paying top dollar for them, and their quality is far below any of the ones on this list.”