Discussion
We like to do as much as possible, very little goes to landfill.
However manufactures have to help.
Example: Bottle of tonic water
Bottle; Recyclable
Cap; Recyclable in some areas
Label; Not recyclable.
In defence plastic non-recyclable label easy to remove, but how many people read that far and one bit of packaging needs to go in different bins, and re the cap not even sure which bin.
However manufactures have to help.
Example: Bottle of tonic water
Bottle; Recyclable
Cap; Recyclable in some areas
Label; Not recyclable.
In defence plastic non-recyclable label easy to remove, but how many people read that far and one bit of packaging needs to go in different bins, and re the cap not even sure which bin.
CinnamonFan said:
If it was all made from one type of plastic and could all be recycled it would all be a lot easier. I have no idea of if this is possible or why it isnt done already.
Personally I find it easier to adopt a more zero waste strategy. Reusable stuff all the time.
Norway does this. Combined with a bottle deposit scheme it works very well. Something like 97% of bottles are recycled. Personally I find it easier to adopt a more zero waste strategy. Reusable stuff all the time.
The problem with recycling is (in the UK) getting the more "council" element of society to do it. It doesn't matter what you make the caps out of or what colour you make the wheelie bins or how many leaflets the council sends out - the chances are it just won't happen. It will all get slung into black bags (at best) and thrown in which ever bin is the emptiest / nearest. Recycling is not "their" problem, it is "someone else's" problem.
As always, education is the answer, but how to teach people that aren't interested in learning is, as always, the question.
As always, education is the answer, but how to teach people that aren't interested in learning is, as always, the question.
I'd like to see a "recycling lottery". Big recycling banks which churn out a free lottery ticket in receipt for a plastic bottle. Encourage kids and chavs to recycle, appeal to their greed rather than sense of civic duty. We already know they'll happily ignore the ridiculously huge odds against winning the national lottery in pursuit of a silly dream. It could be set up to have a really low chance of winning, as long as the prize was big enough, they'd participate.
Maybe that would get the great unwashed into the habit of recycling.
Maybe that would get the great unwashed into the habit of recycling.
northwest monkey said:
The problem with recycling is (in the UK) getting the more "council" element of society to do it. It doesn't matter what you make the caps out of or what colour you make the wheelie bins or how many leaflets the council sends out - the chances are it just won't happen. It will all get slung into black bags (at best) and thrown in which ever bin is the emptiest / nearest. Recycling is not "their" problem, it is "someone else's" problem.
As always, education is the answer, but how to teach people that aren't interested in learning is, as always, the question.
I'm sure you're right, it'd be easier to educate people if the whole thing was straightforward.As always, education is the answer, but how to teach people that aren't interested in learning is, as always, the question.
We recently moved
Previous house
Green bin (food/garden waste)
Black bin (landfill)
Red bin (washed bottles and tins)
White bag (paper)
Red bag (cardboard and plastics)
I had racking set up in the garage to hold everything so it was pre-sorted before The collection lorry, which then had manual sorters on board in two sections. to separate and sort.
The times I've stood in the garage reorganising the contents of the bags (is this tin clean enough? is this juice carton plastic or cardboard? what about the screw cap? is this packaging thin cardboard or thick paper?) It's no wonder people don't get it right or can't be bothered.
New house
Green bin (food/garden)
Black bin (landfill)
Blue bin (recyclables)
Presumably the blue bin goes to some sort of automated sorting centre, much, much easier.
I’m not entirely convinced it doesn’t get mixed up to some degree still.
An example is we have a large paper/cardboard bin for work which is emptied weekly. They open the bin and rummage through it first, if there is even so much as a strip of packing tape or one random foam chip that’s made it in they refuse to collect. At the other end of the unit is a sign writer who has a general waste bin contract with the same refuse company. The same lorry that collects our bin , collects his bin on the way out !
I do agree we have to do something about the amount of plastic waste, then again you only have to order something from amazon to see how much waste and excess rubbish is being generated by them alone .
An example is we have a large paper/cardboard bin for work which is emptied weekly. They open the bin and rummage through it first, if there is even so much as a strip of packing tape or one random foam chip that’s made it in they refuse to collect. At the other end of the unit is a sign writer who has a general waste bin contract with the same refuse company. The same lorry that collects our bin , collects his bin on the way out !
I do agree we have to do something about the amount of plastic waste, then again you only have to order something from amazon to see how much waste and excess rubbish is being generated by them alone .
Bottles and their tops are different plastics because they have different functions.
The bottle is a pressure vessel so needs high tensile strength, thin walls to keep the amount of material to a minimum and to let you see the contents, hence the use of PET.
The top has to be flexible to act as a gasket, and seal onto the top of the harder plastic of the bottle, hence polyproplyene is used. If the two were the same plastic they would probably gall together in the same way as unlubricated stainless steel screw threads.
A lot of labels these days are PET, so they can be recycled with the bottle.
The bottle is a pressure vessel so needs high tensile strength, thin walls to keep the amount of material to a minimum and to let you see the contents, hence the use of PET.
The top has to be flexible to act as a gasket, and seal onto the top of the harder plastic of the bottle, hence polyproplyene is used. If the two were the same plastic they would probably gall together in the same way as unlubricated stainless steel screw threads.
A lot of labels these days are PET, so they can be recycled with the bottle.
I'm not sure the proposed deposit scheme is going to help either.
At the moment our green bin (Eastleigh) gets clean card, paper, tins and any bottle-shaped plastic containers. No tubs or other plastic.
Under the proposals the plastic bottles wouldn't be collected at the roadside, I'd have to take them back instead of putting them in the green bin.
I can see that it might help with plastic bottle use outside the home, but can't help feeling that it would hinder the current home-based recycling.
At the moment our green bin (Eastleigh) gets clean card, paper, tins and any bottle-shaped plastic containers. No tubs or other plastic.
Under the proposals the plastic bottles wouldn't be collected at the roadside, I'd have to take them back instead of putting them in the green bin.
I can see that it might help with plastic bottle use outside the home, but can't help feeling that it would hinder the current home-based recycling.
PositronicRay said:
northwest monkey said:
The problem with recycling is (in the UK) getting the more "council" element of society to do it. It doesn't matter what you make the caps out of or what colour you make the wheelie bins or how many leaflets the council sends out - the chances are it just won't happen. It will all get slung into black bags (at best) and thrown in which ever bin is the emptiest / nearest. Recycling is not "their" problem, it is "someone else's" problem.
As always, education is the answer, but how to teach people that aren't interested in learning is, as always, the question.
I'm sure you're right, it'd be easier to educate people if the whole thing was straightforward.As always, education is the answer, but how to teach people that aren't interested in learning is, as always, the question.
We recently moved
Previous house
Green bin (food/garden waste)
Black bin (landfill)
Red bin (washed bottles and tins)
White bag (paper)
Red bag (cardboard and plastics)
I had racking set up in the garage to hold everything so it was pre-sorted before The collection lorry, which then had manual sorters on board in two sections. to separate and sort.
The times I've stood in the garage reorganising the contents of the bags (is this tin clean enough? is this juice carton plastic or cardboard? what about the screw cap? is this packaging thin cardboard or thick paper?) It's no wonder people don't get it right or can't be bothered.
New house
Green bin (food/garden)
Black bin (landfill)
Blue bin (recyclables)
Presumably the blue bin goes to some sort of automated sorting centre, much, much easier.
We have a collection rota: black bin one week, green and blue the next. The black bin never gets more than half full whereas the blue is full, so much so that I sometimes have to jump up and down and squash it all in a bit.
Recycling is a tough one for me.
Our council operates 5 different bins (plus garden):
General
Paper/card
Glass
Plastic
Degradable food waste
Although we try where possible there is just no space in our 1.5m x 2.0m kitchen for 5 different bins, especially the food waste one which stinks after a day or 2 and where bags can only be bought from library's, useless when you work as you're never around.
As a result we have just the one bin in which everything is put, if we have a lot of card/paper I do try and split it however.
Our council operates 5 different bins (plus garden):
General
Paper/card
Glass
Plastic
Degradable food waste
Although we try where possible there is just no space in our 1.5m x 2.0m kitchen for 5 different bins, especially the food waste one which stinks after a day or 2 and where bags can only be bought from library's, useless when you work as you're never around.
As a result we have just the one bin in which everything is put, if we have a lot of card/paper I do try and split it however.
I’ve just switched the mower to a mulching type, it’s going to save around 10 green bin collections per year.
Even with a really small veg patch 1.5M squared and composter the size of a zinc dustbin incinerator we also recycle 100% of food waste (mostly peelings etc as I’m a big lad and nowt gets wasted).
Once a year the bin contents go onto the patch and refresh the soil.
Volume of other packaging though is still scary and most of our stuff is done from base ingredients. Sooner we have packaging free aisles at supermarkets the better.
Saw an organic place near Barnard Castle where you take your own boxes and fill from volume with various products such as oats, wash powder etc.
It’s easier in the sticks as we’ve been used to collecting fresh eggs and the like using card boxes many times until they collapse.
Urban supermarkets don’t have this option I suppose.
Think future generations will look back on us and think we were a bit thick with all the tat packaging we wrap our lives in though.
Walk round an average supermarket and realise that majority of its entire contents will be landfill in 10 weeks. Regardless of what the solution is, that’s not sustainable with population growth predictions over the next 100 years......
Even with a really small veg patch 1.5M squared and composter the size of a zinc dustbin incinerator we also recycle 100% of food waste (mostly peelings etc as I’m a big lad and nowt gets wasted).
Once a year the bin contents go onto the patch and refresh the soil.
Volume of other packaging though is still scary and most of our stuff is done from base ingredients. Sooner we have packaging free aisles at supermarkets the better.
Saw an organic place near Barnard Castle where you take your own boxes and fill from volume with various products such as oats, wash powder etc.
It’s easier in the sticks as we’ve been used to collecting fresh eggs and the like using card boxes many times until they collapse.
Urban supermarkets don’t have this option I suppose.
Think future generations will look back on us and think we were a bit thick with all the tat packaging we wrap our lives in though.
Walk round an average supermarket and realise that majority of its entire contents will be landfill in 10 weeks. Regardless of what the solution is, that’s not sustainable with population growth predictions over the next 100 years......
xstian said:
There are plenty of so called intelligent people on this forum, who claim recycling is a waste of time and it all goes into landfill anyway.
Maybe it's an age thing rather than an income thing.
I think, to use the mot du jour, that it's straight up entitlement. Maybe it's an age thing rather than an income thing.
My retired and time rich in-laws consider separation of waste types a terrible imposition. And when they have large household items they have finished with, these never find their way to ebay or freecycle: just straight to the dump. That's what they pay their taxes for and it's someone else's problem....
I've recently had lots of building done (still not yet fully complete), which has generated lots of direct building waste and then associated waste from us making other changes at home. I've had to put on hold my normally assiduous attitude to waste sorting/disposal/recycling and it's now finally getting to me. I don't want to be one of those entitled people who think it becomes invisible the minute it lands in the (wrong) wheelie bin.
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