recycling.....

joolz you’ve replicated many a conversation here between Mr C and I as we sort our plastic. I’d love to know the answer.

Hear, hear! This recycling business is really getting out of hand. As Joolz rightly says, we end users are doing our bit, not that we have much choice about it, but it is the producers and manufacturers the government should be tackling.

yes. Yes. YES! I think we are quite lucky in West Oxfordshire with what we can recycle at kerbside. But I totally agree about all the excess packaging, it drives me potty. For a year or so WODC collected flyaway plastics, this last year a change of contractor and expense has meant we can no longer 'recycle' it, so it goes in the rubbish. Crackers.

I am not in the UK so we don't get the luxury of special bins or collections and have to schlepp everything to the recycling centre.

I do notice that some UK products have a lot of additional packaging so perhaps this is something to pressure the big stores about. There was a similar campaign here around 20 years ago and packaging reduced. I bought porridge in the UK and it came in a box with a plastic inner bag -here it comes in a heavy duty paper bag like flour.

I think going back to the drinks bottle deposits of previous times would also help. We have that system here and the rate of returns is high:
90% of glass bottles
82% of plastic bottles
87% tin drinks cans were returned for the deposit return

DH recalls how as young boys he and his best friend had a regular round collecting empties and returning them to shops for the deposit. As a financial venture they did quite well at it and were not even aware what recycling meant!

Currently we are horrified at the amount of plastic packaging we have to throw away each week as there is no recycling collections in our area. We also experience great difficulty getting at the item we have purchased becàuse of arthritis!

Has anyone thought of the shops and homes overflowing with plastic toys.
The western world will drown under a sea of plastic toys.
Food packaging is only half the problem.

Thank you for your responses gransnetters. I’m glad I’m not alone.
As I look out of my kitchen window I see four large dustbins on the drive, taking up precious space. Garden waste, general rubbish, recycling and glass. In the house there is the complex programme of bin collection with fortnightly alternating cycles, a monthly glass collection and the bank holiday arrangements that seems to catch everyone out. I wouldn’t mind so much if the process of sorting it all wasn’t so time consuming.
I woke early today and had a glass of fizzy water while I read the papers on line. Being extra thirsty-a cheeky Chinese takeaway last night, do I throw the containers in the general rubbish or recycling, the containers have no instructions?-I took the bottle of water into the lounge with me. Looking on the back of the bottle, I read that the bottle itself is recyclable but the top may not be. I was advised to contact my local council to find out which bin I should put the bottle cap in! I can envisage the call at 9am when I attempt to get through to whoever makes that decision at my local council. I can see being kept on hold, pressing a choice of buttons and then transferred to several people until I find out what to do with the bottle top of my fizzy water (I know what I’d really like to do with that bottle top). This has to be madness. How many of us have the time, the inclination or indeed the perfect eyesight to be doing this. Surely the bottle should be 100% recyclable. Is that too much to ask?
How many of us check packaging each time we throw it away. Or do we fall into the trap of assuming that because it’s a yogurt pot that it automatically goes in the recycling. But it should be. Why should yogurt pots for example, a single use item, be made from anything other than recyclable plastic? That is not the end consumers fault or decision to use that material and the responsibility for disposing correctly should not be left to us to be constantly checking. But it is. It should be the producer of the yogurt to demand that packaging is recyclable for ALL local authorities. All local authorities should be accepting the same items.
Incidentally, watching the BBC programme inside the factory was fascinating. But how many times did we see stacks of tins/bottles/packets wrapped in acres of cling film for easy storage and transport. Is the cling film recyclable? If not, why not.

I buy as much of my fruit and veg loose and unpacked from markets etc. I try not to use plastic bags, just those recycled bags you can get st the shops. Too much stuff is eventually chucked into landfill. Free cycle is an excellent way to dispose of things you no longer need or want., We’ve certainly grown into a disposable society. I’ve lived in some really poor countries and nothing gets wasted. I suppose the rubbish generated is really a reflection of a countries wealth.? I fear for the state of our world for the generations to come. Our poor earth is so polluted and trashed and when it’s really stuffed, where to from there?

Many end users are doing their bit as joolz says and I agree with the sentiment that the places where food is packed for supermarket sale should be using less unnecessary plastic wrapping. BUT every time the domestic recycling bins in my area are out waiting to be emptied I see plenty that are overfull and which have in full view plastic shopping bags or black plastic bin bags bulging out of the top. I think these still get emptied into the same truck, which makes me suspect that our council must spend a lot on sorting or, perhaps more likely, that the whole lot goes to landfill thus defeating the point of separate collection.

Most supermarkets have loose vegetables and fruit and one doesn't have to put them in a plastic bag to get them priced. It's easy enough to get them weighed and priced, to stick the price ticket on one's shopping list and then plonk the produce in a basket or string bag. I do this and have for ages but I've never seen anyone else doing it. Mind you, I think I am recognised at the supermarket(s) I usually use and the workers there have got used to my weird ways. They also seem to know I'm honest after initial tests when quick scanning was first introduced. I guess in large urban conurbations this might be more tricky. Not impossible though where there's a will.

It flummoxes the staff in my local Sainsbury's, baggs.

It flummoxes me that people collect a bunch of bananas and put them in a plastic bag.

Lessons in easy flummoxing, eh, kitty?

Maybe we should start up another petition to try to get the government to debate this in Parliament ? However, food packaging is the tip of the iceberg , I’m afraid. Plastic zips, buttons, poly cotton? Plasticisers. Paint, microfibre clothing, computers,electrical fittings in homes, covers of books, plugs......all courtesy of Mr.Plastic.the list is endless, plus as someone has already said, plastic toys made by the million and then wrapped in plastic!

I think the reason is the pressure to provide enough food at a reasonable price for the population. As long a shelf life as possible and keeping the food clean is a priority. The plastic trays mean less food gets thrown away.
The government is not going to risk making food even more expensive unless it gets a lot of pressure from the public.
I think individuals can make a lot of difference.
Reminds me I must email Ocado again to request that they show which things are packed in recyclable material.

Again, thanks for your interesting replies. I agree that there is too much plastic, for many many reasons. Some packaging issues cannot be solved, many can. And it sounds that many of us do try really hard to avoid some of it-unwrapped fruit and veg etc. But I think maybe I didn’t make my point as clear as I wanted. We would have to work very hard to rid the world of plastic and packaging, but what packaging we do have to have, why is so much either non recyclable or difficult to deal with. I give you cleaning products. An example is cream cleaner. The bottom can go in the recycle bin; the spout needs that phone call to the council. Why not a bottle of cream cleaner where both part can go into the recycle bin.

I try to buy loose fruit and veg when I can but the other day in Sainsburys loose broccoli was more expensive per kilo than wrapped broccoli. How can that be? Surely it costs money to sort and seal the heads in cellophane.

I totally agree joolz our supermarket here in France has been using paper bags for some time.
Maybe we should unwrap all the plastic at the checkout and leave it for the retailer to deal with.

Christine I have seen people leave the wrappings on the end of the belt, even a cornflake packet as they had left with just the inner contents.
My sister is prone to dump what she considers to be excess wrapping before packing her string carriers. I keep expecting her to leave a trail of small fruit as she leaves the shop.

Apparently there was a petition for this a couple of years ago, the government decided that it would’encourage Manufacturers to use recyclable materials in food packaging’
that went well then.
Maybe we should have a National Leave Your Packaging at the Supermarket Day.
So, the manufacturers wont do it, quoting food safety and transportation problems, it seems that we will have to come up with a good simple idea that gets their attention.
Anyone with a good suggestion? As the OP said by the time it gets to us it’s too late.

I remember our local supermarket in Hamburg having a counter with slots in it for "posting" all your excess packaging before you left the store. That was back in the 70s!

You are right. There is no problem with producing totally biodegradable packaging.

See: youtu.be/8UuatZslHFQ

We just have to push the supermarkets, etc. into doing so.

Where I live the amount of plastic that can be recycled has been limited to what the company the Council has given the job to will take. A few years ago before the change we could recycle much more plastic waste. All of this must now go to landfill so not only the supermarkets etc should take the blame but also the ridiculous company who I do not think I can safely name! My DS & Family live in a town 30 miles away & can happily recycle most plastic items.

This makes me cross. I live in a Cotswold village. Lovely old terraced cottages with hardly any front garden . What space they have is taken up by bins! Also the companies who do the recycling. Presumably they make money. I get we have to sort waste to a degree but they should be making the decisions on whether a bottle top is recyclable. Or buy machines that do.

Supermarkets are starting to act on packaging. They were talking about it on BBC Breakfast a few weeks ago. Aldi seems to be taking a lead on this and changing their packaging very quickly.

Not to mention Amazon, never seen so much unwarranted packaging. I ordered a long handled dustpan and brush and it came in what appeared to be a double wardrobe...full of plastic bubble stuff................grrrrrrrrrrrrrr