Rubbish

There's a thread here about waste. www.gransnet.com/forums/news_and_politics/1244124-How-can-we-get-rid-of-plastic-waste

I think that as a country we are doing quite a lot at the moment, garden waste goes for composting, plastic and other materials are recycled and normal rubbish burned or landfill, depending.Collections are less and a lot of people are pretty good at recycling.As a planet we are doing less well, but the emerging economies will get better with time and an ear bashing from other countries ( and some arm twisting.)

SuDonim, sorry, I should have checked to see if there was an existing thread, but I forgot. We do have a lot more rubbish these days for various reasons.

We didn't have so much unnecessary plastic packaging to get rid of then, and a lot of rubbish was burned quite safely on a fire. My milk still comes in glass bottles, coffee and snacks are eaten from cups and plates sitting at a table, water comes out of the tap and vegetables are bought from the greengrocer in the quantity I want. Supermarkets should start providing paper bags instead of pretending they are selling plastic bags for charity. I am tired of being lectured about problems that I didn't create.

No problem! I thought you'd be interested in what was said.

There was an item on our local U.K. news today about a milk delivery company who have had many more enquiries recently from customers asking for milk to be delivered —- and it is in the old style glass bottles. The company have never actually stopped delivering them.

Got photos today of Morrissons selling single bananas in polistyrene (sp?) tray with cling film wrap around- WTH???

Scottish government looking at a scheme where deposits are made on bottles and refundable when they are returned ..thats ALL bottles glass and plastic.According to SNP website it could be up and running within a couple of years ,My neice lived in Germany where they have machines where they feed in their plastic bottles and get cash back.Something we should certainly be looking at .Recycling our OWN waste would be a good way forward too ..why send it all the way to China? Surely we are capable of dealing with it ourselves

From the Guardian last week

Iceland has become the first major retailer to commit to eliminate plastic packaging for all its own-brand products.

The supermarket chain, which specialises in frozen food, said it would go plastic-free within five years to help end the “scourge” of plastic pollution.

The current plastic packaging would be replaced with paper and pulp trays and paper bags, which would be recyclable through domestic waste collections or in-store recycling facilities.

Yes I think we should all pester the suppliers to use much less plastic. Please could we have milk in bottles in super markets!
And could we have a green R on things to indicate the packaging is recyclable.

I've posted a link on the other plastic thread about a remarkable clean up project - do take a look!

I've signed quite a few petitions from places like change.org and 38 degrees. It looks like there is a swell of support and activity at the moment. David Attenborough collected an award on TV this week and I understand he spoke about the subject again.

I find a contradiction between being asked to save water by not cleaning my teeth with the tap running but at the same time being asked to rinse milk bottles and cans before recycling.

Not a contradiction surely? Letting the tap run while brushing your teeth is unnecessary and wasteful. On the other hand it makes sense to rinse bottles and cans for hygiene reasons. Traces of food would go mouldy in the cans and bottles.

Ever tried washing out a peanut butter jar?

Yes - my husband was trying to wash one out last night - I told him not to waste his time as peanut butter jars just don't come clean! Need to go through the dishwasher - or better still he needs to stop eating it

It takes weeks!