The Handy Bag Opener

This is a great tool to pick up trash and easily put it in the bag. We live in a windy climate and it can be hard sometimes to keep the bag open, but this does the job and it’s very very effective.

I am part of a litter pickup team in the Pittsburgh area - and I cannot even say how much i have appreciated this gizmo. Takes about a minute to get the bag attached to the ring... after which the ring obligingly holds the bag open while I pick up trash (using a grabber, and gloves) and move it into the held-open bag. I am sure there are other uses for the Handy Bag Opener - -but that's mine!!!

I pick up trash several times a week in my neighborhood....sometimes 30 kitchen bags a month! I have arthritis in both my shoulders and hands. This gadget, though a bit pricey, has made my work easier, by holding my bag open. Before it would blow in the wind and twish up while I was trying to place trash in it. I struggle to get the elastic band on with my arthritic hands, but that isn't the manufacturers problem. It works well and is a real blessing for me.

This bag ring has been used for 150 hours to pick up litter, and it has carried out 900 pounds of litter from the streets, trails, and parks, so far. I use 13-gallon kitchen trash bags with this bag holder. Any larger trash bag will drag on the ground and will slip out of the holder when it goes over the weight limit. This holder comfortably holds weights up to around 11ish pounds (a 13-gallon kitchen bag is meant to hold around 8 pounds of garbage) and then the bag will very slowly begin to slip out of the holder. At around 15ish pounds the bag will fully come out of the holder, but at that much weight in a 13-gallon bag the bag will be ripping and disintegrating anyways unless you double-bagged. If you use drawstring bags, you can loop the drawstring around the handle and that adds extra security. Double-bagging is also possible, which increases the structural integrity of your bags if you're anticipating extra weight. I haven't seen any evidence of damage to the ring, even though the edge is often whacked with a metal grabber in attempts to dislodge sticky bits of litter. There are still no cracks or anything. I bought a second one just in case, but I've not needed it yet. Highly recommended.

I pick up at least 14 LB of trash 2-3x a week, often filling two 13 gallon trash bags per cleanup. I am constantly looking for ways to be more efficient, and this bag ring looked like the perfect addition to my trash pick-up toolkit. I used it yesterday for the first time and ran into several issues: 1) As the bag fills up, you have to be careful that trash doesn't fly out. There were a couple times where garbage came out of my bag because of how the ring positions the trash in the bag. It kind of pushes it up at an awkward angle and the items sit near the top, making it easy for things to fall out. 2) The handle is very flimsy and uncomfortable to hold. Something thicker, and more robust would be nice. 3) As the bag got heavier, the bungee cord came off and the handle started pulling away from the bag. I had to stop and fix this several times, and eventually the bag began tearing up around where the bungee cord holds it in place. This is not good when you're a mile away from the nearest garbage can. If you're doing short stints of litter pick-up with a lightweight bag, this handle works fine. I will give it another shot, but it's not as effective of a tool as I was hoping it would be. It's significantly overpriced as well. *Another reviewer shared details on how to DIY a bucket bag holder, and that looks like a better alternative to this.

Great product to use for trash pick up, whether you use it for yard trash, road trash or stadium cleanings. Great product.

My father invented this product, I will always love it!

I have used these for at least 3 years on a weekly basis. To date my group has picked up over 2500 bags of litter......42 gallon size bags! These bags are thicker than your average bags (3 mil). We need to use thicker bags than standard bags found in the grocery store. As a result this ring will not hold the bag that well. Would be great if you could make one that is a bit larger, with a deeper channel for the bungee cord in order to accomodate the thicker bags. This is a great product if you use the thin grocery store garbage bags but not so much for our thick bags.