Plastic recycling - do you only put bottles in or other plastic too?

Mics_chick

Quite often we get things wrapped in cardboard but part of the packaging is plastic which feels like plastic pop/milk bottles so we recycle that as well.

Now I even wash the kids yogurt pots and put them in too. Am I the only one to put other stuff in even though it sometimes says plastic bottles only?

gozaimasu

I put all plastic I possibly can in. I don't want to put it all into landfill, so if I give it to the plastic people, they can be responsible for disposing of it if they can't recycle it.

Dustykitten

I look at the code on the bottom of things. The plastics bin at our supermarkets says 1,2 and 3 only. Some bottles are 5's so shouldn't go in. I think it all gets sorted by hand in china and they throw away the stuff which cannot be recycled so it is probably pointless putting in other stuff.

At the rubbish tip in Mum's town you can now throw in plastic lids, meat trays etc so maybe it depends on where you recylce as to what you can put in.

lauraaurora

gozaimasu wrote: »

I put all plastic I possibly can in. I don't want to put it all into landfill, so if I give it to the plastic people, they can be responsible for disposing of it if they can't recycle it.

Can I suggest you look at the terms of recycling on your local authority's website? We can only put in plastic with the numbers 1 and 2. Every time someone puts in the incorrect numbered plastic, it can cause the whole load to be contaminated, and therefore it all goes in the landfill.

Suggesting the 'plastic people' be responsible sounds a little selfish to me. It's up to us to make sure we put the correct plastic in, or we're not caring for the environment properly. I know it's annoying having to put some plastic in the black sacks, but it's better than all of it going in...

Mics_chick

I didn't know about the different numbers on the plastic so I'm off to my local council website to investigate...;)

squiggles

Our council doesnt take ANY plastic just paper,glass and thin cardboard,not the corregated stuff or any from food items like cereal boxes either

Mics_chick

This is what my local council website said but how do I know which is which ???

Plastic Bottles
We can recycle the following types of plastic bottle in our recycling banks

• Type 1
• Type 2
• Type 3
• PE
• HDPE
• PVC
• PET

Unfortunately the plastic bottle banks cannot accept carrier bags, yoghurt pots, margarine tubs, polystyrene foam or other plastic packaging.

economiser

With our council we can put all paper, cardboard, plastic (any type), steel or aluminium cans all in together. The only exception is glass which has a separate box.

Dustykitten

You look on the bottom on the bottle and there is usually a triangle made of recylcing arrows with a number inside - this is the type so for you 1,2,3 some are 5 so you can't put those in.

Others may not have the triangle but are just stamped PET or PE - if you look at the things you have now, milk bottles, shampoo bottles, mineral water bottles you'll start to get an idea of which are which.

HTH

gozaimasu

lauraandclive wrote: »

Can I suggest you look at the terms of recycling on your local authority's website? We can only put in plastic with the numbers 1 and 2. Every time someone puts in the incorrect numbered plastic, it can cause the whole load to be contaminated, and therefore it all goes in the landfill.

Suggesting the 'plastic people' be responsible sounds a little selfish to me. It's up to us to make sure we put the correct plastic in, or we're not caring for the environment properly. I know it's annoying having to put some plastic in the black sacks, but it's better than all of it going in...

Hmm you have a point, but surely these people have better means of dealing with things than your average person does by just putting into landfill straight away? I was under the impression that it was sorted anyway, be it by hand or any other method. I definitely wouldn't say it's selfish! Surely putting all waste into the hands of people who will be better able to deal with it is less selfish than just chucking it straight into landfill in the first place!

Mics_chick

gozaimasu wrote: »

Hmm you have a point, but surely these people have better means of dealing with things than your average person does by just putting into landfill straight away? I was under the impression that it was sorted anyway, be it by hand or any other method. I definitely wouldn't say it's selfish! Surely putting all waste into the hands of people who will be better able to deal with it is less selfish than just chucking it straight into landfill in the first place!

That makes sense Goz coz if the bottles have got numbers on the bottom it must mean something about the type of plastic or the way it needs to be recycled so it must be sorted through by hand IMHO.

I think the sort of recycled waste that might be dumped coz it's contaminated sounds like stuff to be turned into compost to me.
If they can see normal rubbish has been chucked in with it - like plastic bags or nappies for example - then I can a case for dumping the whole load coz I wouldn't like to have to sort through soiled nappies even though I'm still changing my son's nappies _pale_