Plastic recycling confusion

[Mcr Warrior]

One of my colleagues collects those plastic caps you find on milk bottles for charity through her church - I was told that a minimum of 500kg of these caps need to be collected before the recycling company would even consider offering a price!

Given that a single plastic milk bottle top weighs in at around just one gram, reckon that they'd have needed the best part of half a million of the things!

 

[Mojo]

Some councils are very fussy about what they’ll recycle. I remember when growing up it was quite common for councils to say bottles only, with no lids. I wonder if this was purely because understanding of what was actually recyclable was not common or if there was another reason.

Nowadays it seems councils are less fussy with any items from type 1 or 2 accepted. Some seem to not want black or brown trays (most commonly things that mushrooms are sold in). Mine will take anything from 1, 3, 4 or 5.

 

[High Dyke]

In quite a few homes the master of the house’s answer would be, ”Me”.

Unfortunately the cat doesn't do the washing-up; that's my job usually.

Don't get me started on the lack of clear guidance from retailers/producers of plastic packaging - though some have improved over the last few years.

Another bugbear is why Sainsbury's insist on pointless packaging on veg items e.g. swedes and cucumbers, yet other retailers don't provide this pointless waste.

 

[DarloRich]

My council wants all recycling to be dry, but it takes several days for plastic bottles to dry out. Am I seriously supposed to wait until they are fully dry?

My council wants all recycling in the same wheelie bin, including paper, glass, metal and plastic. Metal drinks cans also take a long time to completely dry out. Even after a week of shaking them every day I can still hear a few drops.

They don't have to be bone dry.

 

[gg1]

My local council are particularly poor when it comes to plastics recycling, only accepting types 1and 2.

I also don't recall ever seeing plastic type number referred to in the recycling guidance for ANY council area I've lived in.

 

[gswindale]

That is a particular bugbear of mine - ours say Yoghurt Pots on the leaflet they gave us a while back, but when you look on the RE3 Recyclopedia app, it seems that not all Yoghurt pots can be recycled.

Don't get me started on type 4 plastic - our council will accept some, but not all type 4 - if it is clear, they will, but if it is predominately dark (i.e. the packaging you get with deliveries from Next/M&S/Tu Clothing etc.), then they won't!

 

[david1212]

My local council will take most plastic food packaging. The clear exceptions are black plastic food trays and film.

Within this I am unsure about food trays that do not have the recycling triangle moulded in. IMO no trays should not be marked but all have either the triangle with a number inside or the triangle with a line though to indicate not recyclable.

The other uncertainty is what technically is thick film or thin tray e.g. some bacon / gammon where the bottom packing is thicker than the top but seems like the same type of plastic.

 

[Shaw S Hunter]

The main problem seems to be that while just about every aspect of activity related to anything that can be sold direct to public is regulated by nationally applied legislation the same rigour has never been applied by Parliament to the whole issue of recycling despite significant public support for the basic principle. Perhaps in the year that the UK hosts a global environmental conference we might expect this to be rectified but I'm not holding my breath.

 

[adrock1976]

North Lanarkshire Council are not only going to stop recycling of plastics, but everything that is recyclable regarding household waste.

I had correspondence from them last week that the blue recycling bins are going to be removed, which is a retrograde step. Everything is to go into the general waste it seems according to their website (see https://www.northlanarkshire.gov.uk...ng/change-alternate-weekly-collection-service).

It is not a very good promotion of the upcoming COP26 climate summit that is due to be held in Glasgow later on this year.

 

[scotrail158713]

North Lanarkshire Council are not only going to stop recycling of plastics, but everything that is recyclable regarding household waste.

I had correspondence from them last week that the blue recycling bins are going to be removed, which is a retrograde step. Everything is to go into the general waste it seems according to their website (see https://www.northlanarkshire.gov.uk...ng/change-alternate-weekly-collection-service).

It is not a very good promotion of the upcoming COP26 climate summit that is due to be held in Glasgow later on this year.

Stopping recycling collections?! Never thought I'd see that happen.

Charge for collection maybe - numerous councils do this for garden waste - as the issue seems to be the cost of recycling material. But outright stopping collections is ludicrous.

 

[Ediswan]

Stopping recycling collections?! Never thought I'd see that happen.

It is worth reading the communication linked above.

We continually monitor the quality of recycling material we collect from households. Unfortunately, contamination levels in the blue bin across your collection route are now at a level that the materials are unfit to be recycled. This means we have to pay a high fee for disposal. As a result, the alternate weekly collection service is no longer sustainable and will be removed.

What is not clear is what proportion of routes are affected.

 

[Welly]

^^^
Is this connected with the plan to build an incinerator next to Europe's biggest landfill site at Greengairs? (what an unfortunate name!) https://www.planningdemocracy.org.uk/2009/incinerator-in-greengairs/

Sorry - I have just realised that proposal was made in 2009 - I have no idea if there is an incinerator there today.

 

[Trackman]

It is worth reading the communication linked above.

What is not clear is what proportion of routes are affected.

I bet they are contaminated by choice (hidden at the bottom) rather than laziness because some councils give out 140L general waster bins that are emptied once a fortnight, unless you have a family with 4 kids or something.
These local and indeed national waste disposal companies are doing a roaring trade in some of these areas and fly tipping of general waste is on the rise for people who cannot afford it.

 

[Ediswan]

I bet they are contaminated by choice (hidden at the bottom) rather than laziness because some councils give out 140L general waster bins that are emptied once a fortnight, unless you have a family with 4 kids or something.

It can be more subtle than that. Some years ago the Co-op introduced small but flimsy "compostable" bags. I used one of these to put my veg trimmings in the recyling bin. After collection, I found it had been rejected and put on top of the bin, with a note. It just so happens that somebody I know was at the time the manager of the local recycling centre. He explained that while those bags will compost just fine in a garden heap, they don't in the accelerated process the council was using.