Jason, our council in Hants does support recycling for some recyclable plastic bottles. As far as I know, most of the people in our area recycle them.

The only problem is it doesn't go far enough. Like you say, some bottles are marked recyclable - as I've mentioned before, this is usually a form of plastic known as "PET" which is one of the commonest forms used in packaging, from bottles to the containers your meals come in on aeroplanes. There are plenty of other plastic containers (i.e. not bottles) marked up with PET, but as of yet they are not accepted by most collection services for recycling, out of fear of not being the same type plastic. Rather ludicrous, when they are even marked.

Also worth pointing out, many of these items marked "recyclable" are made elsewhere in the EU, where indeed they are all recycled. As always, mass incompetance and Darren Lumsden style apathy gets in the way of doing the right thing over here.

Hampshire actually has a good record on recycling.
Wisely i think they refuse to send many plastics to other countries for recycling because they don't know what will happen to them.

I think really that manufacturers and designers have to start thinking and cooperating when it comes to materials used.

Co-op shops are using more degradeable plastic now for packaging for bread etc.

Also consumers can choose where and what to buy so that they recycle more. I mean i buy packets of biscuits that have one layer of packaging or use card. Same with cakes, if it has to much packaging i don't buy it. The more people do it, the more likely the manufacturers will change.

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Originally posted by solargain:
Hampshire actually has a good record on recycling.
Wisely i think they refuse to send many plastics to other countries for recycling because they don't know what will happen to them.

If somebody paid money for said plastics, it's a fair bet that they're not going to burn them on a bonfire or chuck them into a landfill.

quote:

Originally posted by solargain:
Also consumers can choose where and what to buy so that they recycle more. I mean i buy packets of biscuits that have one layer of packaging or use card. Same with cakes, if it has to much packaging i don't buy it. The more people do it, the more likely the manufacturers will change.

But this is only possible to a limited extent; because for most people, it's not feasible to choose between more than two or three shops -- and often, the choice is only from the same major players (Tesco, Morrisons, Sainsburys, Asda and Co-Op if you're lucky). For me, it's Morrisons, Lidl or Sainsburys -- Morrisons being my nearest recycling centre (they haven't got doorstep recycling collections in my part of town yet).

I managed to cut down on some packaging by baking my own bread and cakes, and I have had encouraging results reverse-engineering biscuit recipes using the nutritional information! But this won't make much difference if everybody else is throwing away mountains of packaging material.

Well even in a single supermarket you can choose products with less packaging or more environmentally friendly packaging. Once it becomes a habit it just becomes a part of buying decisions, almost automatic.

Pretty much the only stuff that goes in our bin these days is supermarket packaging. Anything that is compostable is composted, and I do have a huge collection of those trays that mushrooms come in, which are good for growing and collecting seeds.

I just wish supermarkets would provide paper bags instead of plastic ones for putting fruit and veg in.

oh - and I did some research last week (can't remember whether I posted here about it...).

I remember we (in the UK) used to use lots cellophane, which is of course biodegradable. Unfortunately, what is now called cellophane is mainly polypropylene, or cellophane fused with polypropylene, which of course isn't degradable.

Maybe the trading standards people should start getting tough on companies that call stuff "cellophane" when it isn't...?

Original Sellotape is still made with cellulose.

I think the reason our council won't recycle aluminum foil is because people think 'foil' packaging is the same thing.

The day that manufactures started naming plastic packaging with a 'foil look' foil, they made it nearly impossible for recycling alu foil.

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Original Sellotape is still made with cellulose.

but the sticky stuff isn't and it's a right pain to get off books!

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Originally posted by Lucibee:

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Original Sellotape is still made with cellulose.

but the sticky stuff isn't and it's a right pain to get off books!

Tell me a about it!
I have an old 1939 magazine that was ruined by a relative because they used stickytape to hold it together.

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Originally posted by Clootie Dumpling:
If people only knew what plastic is doing to their bodies they would demand it's use be drastically cut and banned completely in the food industry. The information is there on the internet, try googling for it.

Ah thanks for that! It is nice to meet a fan of this search engine. It tells one so much from one's seat without leaving the computer.
Plastic is so fake and so dangerous, I agree.

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Plastic is so fake and so dangerous, I agree.

...but isn't your computer made of plastic?