Recycling plastic wrappers

Tozer

Helpful post Ben84. I think the crucial point is, if in doubt, bin it to avoid the risk of contamination.

geordie_joe

ArmchairTycoon wrote: »

I doubt that very much, it would be far too damaging to their image, Supermarkets have spent a lot of money promoting their green credentials,

Somerfield haven't. They have a scheme whereby if you bring back 5 carrier bags you can have a bag for life. My local Somerfield do not advertise it, and most of the staff don't know about it. I got lots of those bags when I was moving house, only 200 yards so I carried most of the stuff over in bags.

When I asked for more a couple of weeks ago six staff didn't know if they did that any more. One said they used to do it, but she wasn't sure now, and the rest didn't have a clue.

In the end they phoned the manager, who was at home, and he said yes, just put 5 used carrier bags in the recycling bin and I can have a bag for life. The six staff could not find the bin, and I was the only one who could remember seeing it and had to describe it to them so they knew what they were looking for. They still haven't found it!

I reckon some spotty oik was told to empty it into the skip and he/she threw the whole bin in the skip and nobody cared or noticed.

Some supermarkets may have green credentials, but the Somerfield in my town hasn't.

ArmchairTycoon

Tozer wrote: »

NO!!!

Sorry but that is the wrong approach. Recyclable material is assessed by the batch of material and the amount of "contamination" in it. If it is above the accepted level of contamination then the WHOLE batch is rejected by the recycling processor thereby destroying any advantage for the people who have actually put the right stuff at the right time.

By way of example, our local council had stacks of paper rejected for recycling on the basis that it contained too much card and non-recyclable paper (Tetrapak cartons for example). It all ended up as landfill as it would not be economical to sort it.

So please try and put the right recyclable material into the right recepticles.

Your suggestion that the supermarkets will pay someone to sort it is not correct. They will pass it on to the recyclers who may well put it in landfill.

It's the wrong approach in your opinion, but not in mine, I never suggested that 'supermarkets will pay someone to sort it', I am fully aware that contaminated recylables will end up in landfill, this will cost the supermarket money, they have to pay by the tonne to have non recyclable waste removed, the waste in plastic bags bins are actually sorted by supermarket staff before being sent off.

Only when it starts costing them money will they address the issue, supermarkets depend on us being good little citizens and not making a fuss by being socially compliant, maybe it is time we started making things hard for them and not us.

Supermarkets do not recycle for free, they get paid by the recycling companies for many of the materials, all that will happen is they will refuse to accept anything from the supermarket until they give them some guarantees about the quality of the stuff they supply them with, in turn the supermarket will have to provide a wider range of recycling collection bins or cut down on the amount of crap they use in packaging.

Tozer

ArmchairTycoon wrote: »

It's the wrong approach in your opinion, but not in mine, I never suggested that 'supermarkets will pay someone to sort it', I am fully aware that contaminated recylables will end up in landfill, this will cost the supermarket money, they have to pay by the tonne to have non recyclable waste removed, the waste in plastic bags bins are actually sorted by supermarket staff before being sent off.

Only when it starts costing them money will they address the issue, supermarkets depend on us being good little citizens and not making a fuss by being socially compliant, maybe it is time we started making things hard for them and not us.

Supermarkets do not recycle for free, they get paid by the recycling companies for many of the materials, all that will happen is they will refuse to accept anything from the supermarket until they give them some guarantees about the quality of the stuff they supply them with, in turn the supermarket will have to provide a wider range of recycling collection bins or cut down on the amount of crap they use in packaging.

So screw up a potentially huge amount of recyclable material to make a rather silly little point?

That's not an opinion, its a fact and you would be well advised to do some fairly basic research before potentially frustrating all of the efforts of all of those people who try to do their little bit for the environment.

Supermarkets do not generate revenue from recycling material. At best, they will break even. They HAVE to put recycling facilities in to their stores as part of their "Section 106 agreements" or similar such agreements with the local planning authority or similar bodies. In other words - "yes, you can have your supermarket there, but you have to do something in return".

Oh, and how much revenue do you think they make from the Salvation Army shoe bank or the Hospice foil collection which is at our local Tesco.

Please do check your facts.

ArmchairTycoon

Tozer wrote: »

So screw up a potentially huge amount of recyclable material to make a rather silly little point?

That's not an opinion, its a fact and you would be well advised to do some fairly basic research before potentially frustrating all of the efforts of all of those people who try to do their little bit for the environment.

Supermarkets do not generate revenue from recycling material. At best, they will break even. They HAVE to put recycling facilities in to their stores as part of their "Section 106 agreements" or similar such agreements with the local planning authority or similar bodies. In other words - "yes, you can have your supermarket there, but you have to do something in return".

Oh, and how much revenue do you think they make from the Salvation Army shoe bank or the Hospice foil collection which is at our local Tesco.

Please do check your facts.

I really dislike it when someone doesn't read and understand a post, I did not say they made revenue from all of their recyclables, but they do make it from some such as steel and glass, I didn't suggest putting excess packaging anywhere other than the plastic bag recycling, so other than that no other recycling has been tainted, supermarkets do sort through the plastic bags and bag it up for collection, if anyone is truly that concerned about the environment perhaps they should consider not using plastic bags at all.

Section 106 and 75 (Scotland) agreements are discretionary, not compulsory, few councils implement it with supermarkets because they are usually too scared of not getting the jobs and facilities that come with it.

I have done my research, I have just come to a different conclusion to you, at the end of the day people on this forum are perfectly capable of deciding for themselves what course of action they decide upon, what I suggested is one option, that I personally like, and I am sure some others will like it as well, you perhaps consider my idea abhorent, I consider the idea of continually accepting excessive packaging that ends up in my bin unacceptable and this is how I deal with it.

purplevamp

morg_monster wrote: »

I've also noticed this new trend with Sainsburys. I bought some avocados in a net bag the other day (I know, naughty, should have bought loose) and it said you could put the net (but not the label!) into the plastic bag recycling bins. ALso I've noticed it on grape bags and toilet paper wrappers. Now I put any of this kind of "stretchy but strong" plastic (but not cling film) into these bins - eg the wrapper around the mags in the sunday paper. I hope other supermarkets follow JS's lead and put these messages on their packaging soon too. Might write to Waitrose...

I've noticed this with Sainsbury's recently and put a cream carton in the plastic recycling (it had a no. 5 triangle on it and my council take this type). However because it looks like a yoghurt pot they left it in my recycling box so I had to bin it . What I may do if this happens again is to 'hide' it in a milk bottle or something else! They don't check through only if they're loose.:rotfl:

Ben84

Like it or not, supermarkets are here to stay and most people shop at them. I don't believe for a moment that they're good for the environment, the supermarket concept was created at a time when environmental issues were poorly understood by most people. I remember visiting our first local supermarket in the late 80s and being greatly impressed with the range of goods and the lower prices, as well as the simplicity of everything for customers. You simply stick everything in your trolley, buy it, take it home, consume it and the leftover packaging is a pile of inexpensive materials that go in the bin. I've forgotten how many tones of waste we've landfilled since we started supermarket shopping, I couldn't even guess because we just weren't paying attention.

We still go to the supermarket, but it has become something of a love hate thing now that I can see what huge resource and energy consumers they are. Lighting every supermarket in the UK alone must account for a noticeable percentage of our pollution, without even considering the creation of all that packaging and shipping in food from all over the world.

The suggestion of green supermarkets seems impossible at first, but we are stuck with them it seems so we have to encourage them to change as much as possible. Customers do have the power to change things. Using their recycling facilities in the way intended makes sense. Not just because it's a convenient place to centrally collect waste where people will be going anyway, but also because it shows supermarkets that recycling can create revenue, and in time that should result in more recycling facilities and more recyclable packaging. With so much shopping now taking place in supermarkets, I believe the success of supermarket recycling is vital to curing our landfill problem, and will significantly help our consumption of resources. Bringing supermarkets, the companies who create most the products we will be disposing of in to the recycling business will advantage us.

You can love supermarkets, or hate them, or feel somewhere in the middle, it doesn't make a lot of difference if you're not willing to face the fact that they have a lot of power to change things from how they are right now, and that we can influence them. Their recycling and environmental efforts are still in the early days, it would be terrible if we didn't push for more, refuse to accept greenwashes and make the effort to make their efforts work. It won't all change at once, and it certainly won't continue without us being involved. The supermarkets are finally starting to accept back some of the packaging they sold us, and are finding new uses for it. We should encourage it. If we don't, I'm sure the UK will be committed by lack of recyclable packaging and lack of facilities to landfilling our waste for even longer.

Tozer

ArmchairTycoon wrote: »

I really dislike it when someone doesn't read and understand a post, I did not say they made revenue from all of their recyclables, but they do make it from some such as steel and glass, I didn't suggest putting excess packaging anywhere other than the plastic bag recycling, so other than that no other recycling has been tainted, supermarkets do sort through the plastic bags and bag it up for collection, if anyone is truly that concerned about the environment perhaps they should consider not using plastic bags at all.

Section 106 and 75 (Scotland) agreements are discretionary, not compulsory, few councils implement it with supermarkets because they are usually too scared of not getting the jobs and facilities that come with it.

I have done my research, I have just come to a different conclusion to you, at the end of the day people on this forum are perfectly capable of deciding for themselves what course of action they decide upon, what I suggested is one option, that I personally like, and I am sure some others will like it as well, you perhaps consider my idea abhorent, I consider the idea of continually accepting excessive packaging that ends up in my bin unacceptable and this is how I deal with it.

The bottom line is that if you put non-recyclable material in with recyclable material then you contaminate the batch. Period. To deliberately do it and risk contaminating material that other people, in good faith, intended to recycle is, in my view, disgraceful behaviour.

What research have you done to suggest otherwise?

morg_monster

I have more sainsburys news...
Today while I was munching my malties (sainsburys brand shreddies), I noticed that on the back of the packet was a big self advertisement for how great they are on green issues... Anyway I chuckled away but then noticed that they said that as well as recycling the box as usual, the inner bag of the cereal can be put in their plastic bag recycling bin!! They are HD-PE, or number 2.
I find this quite useful, as our council recycles HD-PE but only in the form of plastic bottles.
I suspect however that sainsburys won't say "any HDPE is fine" in their bag bins, as they did for LDPE, they would fill up very quickly as so much plastic packaging is HDPE. But it's worth knowing for other light HDPE packaging like these cereal bags which the council won't take.

geordie_joe

ArmchairTycoon wrote: »

I consider the idea of continually accepting excessive packaging that ends up in my bin unacceptable and this is how I deal with it.

You don't have to accept it, you can simply not by the items you consider to be excessively packaged and then tell the management why you are not buying it.

Buying it then putting the packaging in the recycling bin will not get them to change the packaging. Not buying it, and letting them know why just might.