Can flexible plastic be recycled

burtons
burtons Posts: 724 Forumite
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in Praise, vent & warnings
My local council/tip have brought in a new bag sorting policy which means that any mixed bagged waste taken to the tip intended for the non-recyclable waste skip will have to be taken to a designated bag sorting area and sorted so you can put them in the correct skip. So yesterday I took a keter storage shed to the tip and as I was putting it in the rigid plastic skip a worker stopped me and said you can only put the roof the floor and the doors in that skip and the walls would have to go in the non-recyclable skip as it's flexible plastic.

Comments

  • LadyDee
    LadyDee Posts: 4,293 Forumite
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    I think it very much depends on which Council deals with your recycling - they do have different facilities in different areas. We couldn't recycle certain dark coloured plastics or margarine/butter tubs until recently, but now we can put them in the recycling bin.
  • Manxman_in_exile
    Manxman_in_exile Posts: 8,380 Forumite
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    Your council's website should tell you exactly what is and is not recyclable.


    Why are you sorting non-recyclable stuff? Does it have to go in different skips depending what it is?
  • burtons
    burtons Posts: 724 Forumite
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    Manxman_in_exile wrote: »
    Your council's website should tell you exactly what is and is not recyclable.


    Why are you sorting non-recyclable stuff? Does it have to go in different skips depending what it is?
    Yes it has to go in different skips depending what it is. About 2 years ago the tip moved to a bigger place so now they have about 20 bays for different items but people was still throwing everything in the skip for landfill so the council/tip decided to bring in the new bag sorting policy. The council's website just says hard plastic with a picture of a patio chair so what do they class as hard plastic.
  • TripleH
    TripleH Posts: 3,018 Forumite
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    Our council proudly announces that 95-98% (or figures in that region) are 'not sent to landfill' and in terms of plastic that is true, if by recycled you mean 'the oil used to make the plastic is then used again to make fuel'.

    Paper : that's fine you can recycle that, we will take it away and shred it to a nice pulp and reuse. Shredded Paper : (sharp intake of breath) whooah guvnor sorry no can do. We can't handle shredded paper, it will have to be burnt for fuel.
    May you find your sister soon Helli.
    Sleep well.
  • Manxman_in_exile
    Manxman_in_exile Posts: 8,380 Forumite
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    OP - you can only go by what the staff at the tip tell you.


    Plastics are a nightmare - when we sort recycling for our fortnightly collection, my wife and I frequently differ as to what plastics are recyclable.


    It's a pity that "rules" differ from council to council - I presume it depends what facilities they have.


    It used to be that ours wouldn't accept shredded paper in the re-cycling bin, but now they do.


    Off topic, but we have a weekly food waste collection, and when that started I was amazed at how much stuff was waste - and we eat everything!
  • sheramber
    sheramber Posts: 19,049 Forumite
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    Our council can only recycle certain plastics.

    The place they send it to cannot recycle some types.
  • mac.d
    mac.d Posts: 1,345 Forumite
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    Manxman_in_exile wrote: »
    Plastics are a nightmare - when we sort recycling for our fortnightly collection, my wife and I frequently differ as to what plastics are recyclable.
    Where I stay they pretty much only recycle plastic bottles and that's it. Which you'd think would make it pretty easy for people...

    Sadly that is of course not true. Any type of plastic packaging, containers and bags get chucked in recycling. I've no idea what the council do with it (reject it, or sort through it). I even pinned up the recycling/bin collection leaflet at work that tells you what goes in what bin, makes no difference. :huh:
  • LilElvis
    LilElvis Posts: 5,835 Forumite
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    mac.d wrote: »
    Where I stay they pretty much only recycle plastic bottles and that's it. Which you'd think would make it pretty easy for people...

    Sadly that is of course not true. Any type of plastic packaging, containers and bags get chucked in recycling. I've no idea what the council do with it (reject it, or sort through it). I even pinned up the recycling/bin collection leaflet at work that tells you what goes in what bin, makes no difference. :huh:

    At our local landfill the bags that are supposed to contain paper, plastic and tin cans for recycling all go to a "sorting shed" where it is manually sorted. My husband works on the site and says it's quite amazing what gets put into those bags - every year they have to remove several tonnes of soiled nappies as just one example.
  • pogofish
    pogofish Posts: 10,852 Forumite
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    Surely the hint is in the name - Plastic!
  • mac.d
    mac.d Posts: 1,345 Forumite
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    LilElvis wrote: »
    My husband works on the site and says it's quite amazing what gets put into those bags - every year they have to remove several tonnes of soiled nappies as just one example.
    :mad:
    I can never work out whether people who put stuff like that in recycling are just stupid, don't really care, or think, someone else will deal with it. Or a combination of all three.
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