When recycling takes hold

[Karlosfandango]

I must be getting old because waste is something that really gets on my wick. Other than the layers upon layer of plastic that everything is now covered in, some of the stuff businesses bin is unbelievable. A friend used to work for one of the big civil engineering firms on the railways, anything left over from a job would just get skipped even if new.

I discovered a local business that makes large industrial metal products. Most of their materials come in on large pallets, of which 80% get dumped in a pile. These pallets tend to be large and made of proper solid lengths of timber. They are only too happy to let me strip the pallets and fill my boots. I took away about four trailer loads about 18 months ago and built a shed...

..rebuilt our conservatory and made loads of other random stuff. My dearest required a field shelter for her donkey and as stocks were getting low I've just come back with a second trailer load. There's at least another four loads of perfectly useable timber and probably another four that could be used in the woodburner, it's frightening.

 

[MarkW]

its mostly down to ignorance and lack of knowledge of the costs involved. Pallets should be taken back by the supplier nowadays and reused, or at worst sent to one of the community wood recycling outfits.

Few businesses realise that when they throw something away, they have paid for the item initially, paid for its storage, paid for the skip it ends up in and paid for the disposal.

after 20 years of working with civil engineering co's on the environmental side, one of the biggest problems is many deliberately over order and factor in a certain percentage for wastage. And they wonder why the lose money!

 

[MarkW]

sorry forgot to say, nice job on the recycling

 

[Michael Montgomery]

Great job you must be proud .... thanks for sharing

 

[Towpack]

+1 on the recycling. Never really took that much notice on the use of plastic packaging, not until it's been in the news lately. There aren't many things you can buy they aren't reliant on plastic in some form.

 

[karl webster]

I love the recycling when its done at home for our own use.

 

[StarCruiser]

Nice work there Karlos. You've made some very nice buildings there.

 

[Towpack]

Nice work there Karlos. You've made some very nice buildings there.

+1 and so much better than simply cutting it up for firewood.

 

[StarCruiser]

I agree. I'll have to post up my efforts recycling a machine pallet.

 

[clivehorridge]

Yep, certainly approve of that there Karlos.

What is it with all this effin plastic these days?

You go to the supermarket for some soft drinks, it comes in plastic bottles, they are wrapped into twin-packs with plastic and a carrying handle (the handle bit is a good idea), but then you get to the checkout, they ask you if you want a bag (plastic of course).

Rightly or wrongly, I burn most of our burnable household waste, because I know if I bin it, it will end up in landfill.

Then you find that half of the “paper” or card used these days for packaging, isn’t paper at all, or it is but it’s mixed with a kind of plastic stuff, that doesn’t burn easily. A big roaring fire will get it gone, but put a match to it and you’d be there all day.

What’s all that about then?

 

[Towpack]

+1 on that Clive. Paper seems to be either plastic coated or wax impregnated.
We have separate recycle bins for metal, plastic, paper, organic & garden waste and the general waste bin. I think the general waste is burnt in the local city incinerator and the rest is sorted and graded. Not 2 min drive from us there's a recycle centre (used to be a landfill site in the 60/70's) where EVERYTHING is sorted and graded plus tanks for oil waste and a battery bin. I have to say it's always busy and at the weekends they can be a long queue and 20min+ waits.
We should go back 50 years, to the reusable milk bottle and paper carrier bags and drinking straws etc...etc. If glass is too expensive/fragile/dangerous then surely a reusable milk bottle made from a tough resilient plastic alternative is possible?

 

[Ben Stratford]

+1 on that Clive. Paper seems to be either plastic coated or wax impregnated.
We have separate recycle bins for metal, plastic, paper, organic & garden waste and the general waste bin. I think the general waste is burnt in the local city incinerator and the rest is sorted and graded. Not 2 min drive from us there's a recycle centre (used to be a landfill site in the 60/70's) where EVERYTHING is sorted and graded plus tanks for oil waste and a battery bin. I have to say it's always busy and at the weekends they can be a long queue and 20min+ waits.
We should go back 50 years, to the reusable milk bottle and paper carrier bags and drinking straws etc...etc. If glass is too expensive/fragile/dangerous then surely a reusable milk bottle made from a tough resilient plastic alternative is possible?

In the dairy business which I was in for 25 years, we did trial plastic reusable milk bottles, but the final versions of an acrilic type material that could be reused 20 times before they were damaged or too scratched to run through the electronic scanners cost £2 each. Whereas the glass bottles were £0.06 each and had a trippage of 45 so much more cost effective. The problem was, cartons then polybottles became more convenient for supermarket shoppers so the milkmen had to service larger and larger areas which took longer and longer to deliver each day on unrefrigerated floats. Then the batteries didnt have long enough to recharge etc so diesel vans came in and prices went up etc etc
The old technology is tried and tested and works very well but needs the consumer or customer to demand it.
At least now the milk polybottles are 100 recyclable into new milk polybottles, this took 20 years to achieve. But the cartons are very difficult to recycle cost effectively due to their composite structure.
Paper bags - Yes absolutely.

 

[Towpack]

The old technology is tried and tested and works very well but needs the consumer or customer to demand it.

That will be the biggest problem to be overcome. The convenience of buy it cheap and throw it away may have to be sacrificed or at least compromised to a degree. If door to door deliveries are out due to cost/convenience then maybe have sale and return bottles or reusable plastic cartons in shops and supermarkets. Milk sales are only the tip of the iceberg of course and it's the vast amount of single use plastic packaging that really needs addressing. Eggs would be a good start by scrapping the plastic and polystyrene boxes and going back excessively to the paper/cardboard versions.

 

[Shayne]

Pallets are like old school pop bottles but instead of getting 10p back there's a fiver deposit on them (i'm going back many years but if it was painted blue the boss would have us repair them for return) .

Personally i couldn't care less about recycling , they can't collect bins every week but they have separate days collecting for plastic and paper and whatever and happily most of it remains on the streets blowing about in the wind .

I would say to governments the world over if you care about the environment start making things that last , that can be reused time and time again , that can be passed down through generations . Until that happens it all goes in one bin here because i really don't give a toss .

 

[clivehorridge]

Just to note, I live in an ultra rural area, where the majority live an almost money absent existence. They exchange the proceeds of their small-holdings between them, everyone works hard and they all seem to have everything they need.

They do earning work as well, which buys the TVs and other items they can’t make. Wood for example, is used extensively, but despite us being surrounded by forests, none of it is wasted. What can’t be used for furniture or building goes for domestic heating.

I would guess that the average annual tonnage of garbage per capita here is only a tiny fraction of that in the UK. One of the prices paid for “development” and “progress” it seems.

 

[Dave2000]

In the dairy business which I was in for 25 years, we did trial plastic reusable milk bottles, but the final versions of an acrilic type material that could be reused 20 times before they were damaged or too scratched to run through the electronic scanners cost £2 each. Whereas the glass bottles were £0.06 each and had a trippage of 45 so much more cost effective. The problem was, cartons then polybottles became more convenient for supermarket shoppers so the milkmen had to service larger and larger areas which took longer and longer to deliver each day on unrefrigerated floats. Then the batteries didnt have long enough to recharge etc so diesel vans came in and prices went up etc etc
The old technology is tried and tested and works very well but needs the consumer or customer to demand it.
At least now the milk polybottles are 100 recyclable into new milk polybottles, this took 20 years to achieve. But the cartons are very difficult to recycle cost effectively due to their composite structure.
Paper bags - Yes absolutely.

I was about to start a new thread about the UK's efforts to rid the sea of plastic was gaining momentum as it has been mentioned on Spanish radio, I then see this thread already under way.

I was prompted by a supermarket chain here that has recently swapped selling fresh milk in cardboard 'bricks' and changed to single use plastic however, @Ben Stratford excellent post has enlightened me to think that perhaps the plastic being used is in fact recyclable? I don't purchase the plastic bottles based on the very fact that they are......well plastic, next time I see one I will see if there is an indication as to whether the plastic can be recycled.

Regards

Dave

 

[Ben Stratford]

I was about to start a new thread about the UK's efforts to rid the sea of plastic was gaining momentum as it has been mentioned on Spanish radio, I then see this thread already under way.

I was prompted by a supermarket chain here that has recently swapped selling fresh milk in cardboard 'bricks' and changed to single use plastic however, @Ben Stratford excellent post has enlightened me to think that perhaps the plastic being used is in fact recyclable? I don't purchase the plastic bottles based on the very fact that they are......well plastic, next time I see one I will see if there is an indication as to whether the plastic can be recycled.

Regards

Dave

Plastics must be kept segregated during recycling to keep materials and colours together. So the tops and plastic labels need to be removed. Otherwise the result is darker and darker plastic so eventually only fit for black bins and things.
Few bottles are only made from just recycled material, some new ingredients are added to keep the elasticity in the right area.
The labels applied to milk polybottles used to be supplied on a paper composite that could only be recycled in one plant in saudi arabia!!
The longer life fresh milk polybottles are black plastic covered in white plastic to stop UV affecting the milk, not sure if these can be recycled.
Overall I applaud the effort but worry about the fossil fuels and pollution created in order to recycle things.