Recycling

maltingsaudio

So I’m putting a crisp packet and washed out baked bean tin in the blue bag, whilst the industrial economies are pumping shxxt loads of carcinogens into the atmosphere 

What is the point?

I don’t even feel worthy only just  thankful I dodged a bullet from Mrs M for putting the recycling out!

rogd

Mrs M sounds a bit formidable!!

ICBM

Are you sure you can recycle the crisp packet? I thought they were one of the things you can't...

LooseMoose

maltingsaudio said:

So I’m putting a crisp packet and washed out baked bean tin in the blue bag, whilst the industrial economies are pumping shxxt loads of carcinogens into the atmosphere 

What is the point?

I don’t even feel worthy only just  thankful I dodged a bullet from Mrs M for putting the recycling out!

Honest answer?  Because it’s easier for the government to give YOU stick for ‘not doing your bit’ than it is to ask their mates (Sir Timothy, CEO Megarich Energy Corp) to put their hand in their pockets and invest to change their ways to do anything about it…

olafgarten

Things are actually starting to change for the better when it comes to Publicly traded companies, there are regulations coming in making them disclose emissions and investors are taking note that sustainability and environmental impact is important.

The issue is that Governments aren't doing anything to influence the private companies and that is where a lot of this is happening. 

Mattharrier

olafgarten said:

Things are actually starting to change for the better when it comes to Publicly traded companies, there are regulations coming in making them disclose emissions and investors are taking note that sustainability and environmental impact is important.

The issue is that Governments aren't doing anything to influence the private companies and that is where a lot of this is happening. 

This is true, on both counts, although LooseMoose is also, I suspect, very much on the nose as well - far too many people in government who are influenced by big corporations for whom money is more important than anything else. Make it illegal for politicians to have any source of earnings outside of their salary while they are in office, and the amount of corruption will drop (the number of people wanting to be politicians will drop as well, but frankly I'd say that less of the Oxbridge, PPE degree, career politician brigade would be no bad thing).

It won't go away completely of course, but it's currently only "frowned upon" to accept money for introducing lobbyists to ministers, it's not actually illegal, and so it's easy to see how a company that makes billions in profit every year would be able to spend mere millions getting politicians to vote in their interests when it comes to expensive environmental-friendly legislation that will eat into profits.

jpfamps

I was washing some plastic food containers up to put them in the recycling bin, and was wondering whether the amount of water I used to do this was making the whole exercise slight pointless. It almost certainly is for glass containers.

Danny1969

I wash up then use the washing up water to clean the recycling. 

It might be a bit pointless though. Some plastic is easily recoverable but a lot of it isn't. Our country used to send the stuff that was hard to recover to China but they refused it once they realised the small amount of money to be earned was less than the cost to their health system which was treating the workers doing it. 

I don't know where half of it goes now, land fill maybe ?

ICBM

Danny1969 said:

It might be a bit pointless though. Some plastic is easily recoverable but a lot of it isn't. Our country used to send the stuff that was hard to recover to China but they refused it once they realised the small amount of money to be earned was less than the cost to their health system which was treating the workers doing it. 

I don't know where half of it goes now, land fill maybe ?

I think it gets shredded and ends up as that 'random plastic fibre' matting for kids' playgrounds and stuff. It's probably not the most worthwhile use, but it does at least avoid it going to landfill.

Not sure what type they make those park benches out of, which are supposedly recycled 'general plastic'... maybe the same sort of thing. That seems quite useful - the plastic is more durable than wood - although it does apparently burn quite well when neds set fire to them.

Simonh

I read something the other day that they are finally developing bacteria than can break some plastics down, this is going to be key in helping us clean up the planet I feel.

scrumhalf

When packaging states "widely recycled" or advises you to check locally it's not at all helpful. Stuff like this needs to be addressed. 

ArchtopDave

There are times in life where you have to take a rather philosophical approach to what you are doing.

 Whilst I find it frustrating that my local council doesn't attempt to recycle all the stuff that's meant to be recyclable, if you don't start somewhere with recycling, then you're never get going in the first place.

boogieman

ArchtopDave said:

There are times in life where you have to take a rather philosophical approach to what you are doing.

 Whilst I find it frustrating that my local council doesn't attempt to recycle all the stuff that's meant to be recyclable, if you don't start somewhere with recycling, then you're never get going in the first place.

This. 

It might seem pointless us all recycling tiny amounts of stuff but it all adds up if everyone does it. Councils need to get their finger out and try harder. I suspect it’s all to do with cost though and they’re doing the minimum acceptable. Probably needs either government intervention or cash injections to sort it out and that’ll be way down the list of priorities, especially at the moment. 

Nitefly

Part of the problem is that there is no national standard for recycling - each local authority can decide for itself what's recyclable and what's not.

I think central govt needs to step up and define some clear rules.

dchwhite

ICBM said:

Are you sure you can recycle the crisp packet? I thought they were one of the things you can't...

We can't put them in our blue bin, but I don't know if it's different in other parts of the country. We save ours up and once we have a decent amount take them to a local collection centre under this scheme:

https://www.terracycle.com/en-GB/brigades/crisppacket

It tends to be schools and suchlike round here, and I believe they get paid per kilo.