recycling

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scribble2005

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is it true that recycling is mainly bullshit and they just pretend its happening to keep green groups happy? i mean for one my dad told me that it is VERY expensive (prohibitively so) to recycle anything but aluminum cans. also.........the new orange bags that you put everything to be recycled in...... well i can hardle imagine that there are people that sort thru every bag in london and sort them into cans, cardboard, etc.

i mean........????? i wonder. any ideas or inside info?????
 
recycling is getting there, but it takes a long time..

glass is recycled, but in a rather silly way - melted down and re-formed rather than using it again. (on the continent most glass bottles are the same, and are simply collected, washed and re-used)

paper etc is recycled, usually used for newspapers / loo roll etc.

plastic - this is the slowest to take off, cos its a) expensive b) only a few types of plastic actually *can* be recycled. In cambridge they now collect plasic bottles which are taken to peterborough to be re-cycled. dunno about else where

Tescos/Sainsburys now have special plasic bag recylcing things, but i dunno what they do with them.. dont think polythene is particularly easy to melt & re-form..
the co-op, however now use bio-degradable plastic bags, for those of you who cant be arsed to use a rucksack! :grandad:

of course, remeber the story (not sure if this was a bit of an urban myth or actually the truth) of leeds city council "recycling" everything by shipping it off to thailand to be stacked in 4 story high, hundreds of miles long rubbish tips.. so it ain't always as it seems :Sad:
 
Hmmm.. remember living abroad and someone coming up with same conspiracy theory. However rubbish collectors would not take your rubbish bags unless they could see everything was sorted properly (there were separate bags for paper / cans/ glass). If it wasn't they'd leave the bags behind and would not take them till they were sorted properly. Doubt they would have been so anal if it had been a 'front'.

Would be interesting to hear from insiders indeed whether all pithy recycling efforts are for nothing anyhow as it ends up as landfill
 
scribble2005 said:
is it true that recycling is mainly bullshit and they just pretend its happening to keep green groups happy? i mean for one my dad told me that it is VERY expensive (prohibitively so) to recycle anything but aluminum cans. also.........the new orange bags that you put everything to be recycled in...... well i can hardle imagine that there are people that sort thru every bag in london and sort them into cans, cardboard, etc.

i mean........????? i wonder. any ideas or inside info?????
Click to expand...

While there is a cost associated with the collection of recyclables and the process of recycling, so that in some cases the recoup from the recycled materials is very low - councils in this country - who are responsible for the disposal of household waste have to pay Landfill Tax which makes it cheaper for them to recycle than to landfill.

They wish to keep Council tax down so they get reelected so they are rapidly introducing recycling schemes and trying to persuade people to use these schemes.

These schemes are fairly individual to each council so I have not come accross the orange bag scheme itself but it sounds like the type of collection scheme where all dry recyclables are collected in one container and then separated at a facility called a MRF (Materials Recycling Facility)

HTH

PHLUR :sun:
 
Sturdy Pete said:
recycling is getting there, but it takes a long time..

glass is recycled, but in a rather silly way - melted down and re-formed rather than using it again. (on the continent most glass bottles are the same, and are simply collected, washed and re-used)
Click to expand...

In this country we generate alot of green glass as waste - unfortunately we do not use much green glass in our bottling plants (not much wine) - alot of it is now ground up and used as part of road surfacing.

paper etc is recycled, usually used for newspapers / loo roll etc.
Click to expand...

Paper waste comes in different grades. High grade office waste can be used to make higher quality paper for use in printers etc. The lower the grade the lower the quality of recycled paper.

plastic - this is the slowest to take off, cos its a) expensive b) only a few types of plastic actually *can* be recycled.
Click to expand...

Wrong all plastic can be recycled - however to avoid confusing the public and because sorting the different grades of plastic on a coveyor belt by hand would be a v. slow process most plastic recycling schemes only take PET 1 &/or PET 2 plastic bottles.

Fleeces and road cones are made form recycled plastic..

of course, remeber the story (not sure if this was a bit of an urban myth or actually the truth) of leeds city council "recycling" everything by shipping it off to thailand to be stacked in 4 story high, hundreds of miles long rubbish tips.. so it ain't always as it seems :Sad:
Click to expand...

Lets face it given your other 'facts' it's probably an urban myth :Smile3:

Wrap is the waste & resourses action program and has a fair bit of info

http://www.wrap.org.uk/

Waste watch is based in Leeds and has some good info

http://www.wastewatch.org.uk/

My girlfriend works for these people they have some good info

http://www.recycleforcornwall.org.uk/

HTH

PHLUR :sun:
 
I'm dubious about the whole thing. In our area there is a completely different crew that picks up the recycling so more lorries and more polution. It is then taken to a recycling point where it is all dumped. It is then picked up from there and taken to Essex, where it is separated then sent off to the recyclers.

Even more than recycling, what I find a great pity, is going to the local tips and seeing the things that are thrown away. I find it totally immoral to see the things that are dumped by our consumer society. It is a sick world when one person will throw away an almost new kitchen suite while another will walk for miles to get water in a rusty bucket.
 
We get one teensy eeensy plastic box to put our recycling in. They take paper, thin card,cans and plastic bottles. It all gets chucked into what looks remarkably like the same crusha lorry that collects our black sacks. I'm a bit puzzled as to how they can sort it when theyve crushed it.

Some areas have got a free giving away place type thing:
www.freecycle.org has got a list of where. I got the kids a tv from there - perfect condition but someone wanted a bigger one.
 
hmmm...

ohw recycling :sad: - its one of my lil passions....
but i get so sad that it doesnt come
naturally/ automatically to everyone :no:
- i mean
how much effort is it to put the good stuff
in a bin next to / behind
the crappy kitchen bin? :confused:
even in my house -where people are lovely-
it aint done
tho theres a note on top of the bin....
every lil paper reciept
or soup tin
can be recycled
and give a lil bit more hope to the earth
:peace: it just has to become a habit to seperate em....
 
There are two huge recycling centres within half an hour of my house and all the supermarkets have recycling bins...plastic, paper, clothes, glass, cans, books...most stuff :Grin:

We also get separate bags for everything :Smile3:
 
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