The War against plastic waste

I still use the real nappies I had for my sons. They are now late 20's.
They are great cloths, very absorbent. A couple of then I've hardly used as keeping them for when the others wear out. Doesn't look as if it's happening any time soon.

The plastic windows in envelopes really annoy me. I shred the envelopes but have to pull the plastic out first and then the plastic can't be recycled.

I found a recipe, in case anyone is interested, for a multi-surface home made cleaner. It is from an article in The Guardian. 2 tablespoons of washing up liquid, 1/4 cup of white vinegar, put in a spray bottle and fill up with hot water and then shake. I used it this weekend and seems to be working quite nicely.

PipneyJane wrote: »

[*]Our council does not segregate recycling into categories. It all goes into the one bag, for sorting at the depot. They even accept shredded paper, plastic bags and foil trays so, if I'm not sure something plastic is recyclable - say, old Tupperware - I'll still include it.
- Pip

This is just about the worst thing you can do. You should never put in something for recycling if you are not sure it has been asked for by your local council. Councils list what they want on their websites, it doesn't take a minute to check.

When all recyclables are put into one bin, they are sorted by machinery. The machinery is not 100% effective, and so a lot of contamination remains. It varies dependent on the facility. If contamination is too high, the whole load will be rejected, or this poorer quality stuff is that which is more likely to end up dumped in a foreign country. One benefit of box collections where materials are all separated and sorted into different parts of the vehicle, is that they result in low levels of contamination as wrong materials can be left by the recycling crews.

Milton Keynes council was one where waste was found in Malaysia on the War on Waste programme. They were also recently subject to penalties by their waste collection company because the amount of contamination in their recycling was far higher than expected. Around 25% of what is put in their recycling bins is not what should be. A lot of that will be well-meaning people putting things in that they *think* should be recycled, rather than what is actually asked for.

We shouldn't just be focussing on recycling everything, we need to ensure that we are recycling the right things as well, as if it's all a load of rubbish masked as recycling, then no one will want to make anything out of it.

Georgiepie wrote: »

Why do they wrap things like cucumber in plastic.

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Cucumbers and their shrink-wrap have been all over the media.

Significant increase in shelf life: reduces food waste during transportation, in the store AND in the home. SIngle person households notice the shorter life more than families.

Inane Anita briefly mentioned that some plastic packaging is important for shelf life, but completely failed to inform watchers as to which fruit and vegetables.

This ^^

Food waste has a much higher environmental impact than plastic. The rush to get rid of plastic on everything could have unintended consequences which are far more harmful - more food waste, more emissions from transporting heavier and bulkier packaging (glass)

If we all start replacing plastic with paper and cardboard items, can we cope with the demand for wood? Or are we going to increase deforestation?

Nick_C wrote: »

Interesting thread. But single use plastic is not bad.

Plastic bottles are much lighter than glass, and therfore reduce the amount of fuel required to transport liquids.

Single use plastic bags are better than single use paper bags for similar reasons. Bags have to be delivered to retailers. The lorry delivering the bags can carry far more plastic bags than paper ones, and they weigh less. And less energy is used in their manufacture.

Plastic packaging extends shelflife and reduces food waste.

The problem with single use plastics is that we are not disposing of them properly, and councils have been encouraged to attempt to recycle materials which can't be recycled easily and for which there is no demand / end market.

We should only be trying to recycle plastic bottles, almost all of which are type 1 or 2 (PET or HDPE). Other single use plastics should go into residual waste and be incinerated with energy recovery (generate electricity and capture the heat for communal heating systems and hot water). We should be incorporating small scale incinerators in residential areas, reducing the energy wasted in collecting waste from our homes and transporting it to a disposal facility.

I agree.

Evening all
I haven't quite caught up so i apologise if this has already been said.
Like many i am concerned about waste in general.... it scares me that by 2050 there is likely to be more plastic in the sea than fish.I understand that banning all plastic isn't the answer as its lighter to transport plastic than paper but we have to start somewhere.
Whilst on my mission to reduce and recycle i came across Terracycle and a lovely local lady that goes to a lot of effort to collect loads of different items that wouldn't normally be recycled but they take them back and transform them into many different items and the collectors raise money for charity in my local area a Primary school.
Items include crisp packets, chocolate wrappers. coffee pods.List is endless.
With my non recyclable plastic i take it back to Morrisons every few weeks( i am assured by the store manager this does get sorted and doesn't go into landfill which i do hope is true)

Lastly along with all recycling my council collects food waste which is amazing as i now have hardly any landfill rubbish.:D