Recycling

There have been lots of complaints on here about how dirty China is. Not until now have I seen anywhere that it was said our rubbish pollutes China.

Anyone fancy being recycled in 2018?

I can see the whole system breaking down if more third world countries follow China’s lead and refuse to accept foreign recycling for processing. Having said that, they could be doing their own manufacturers a disservice as one was reported as saying that if he couldn’t get the plastic pellets that resulted from processing the waste plastic, he would go out of business.

They are all over the beach in summer too alongside the dog poop bags.

I was also thinking that there might be fewer dirty nappies flung about. One just missed my head as I walked past a block of flats once

I always used terry nappies for my babies except when travelling when I used disposables. I had my children in the early 1970s.

When my grandchildren arrived in the early 2000s I gave terry nappies as presents but I think disposables were used a lot. I do find the thought of all thse disposable nappies going to land fill pretty shocking.

It’s mind boggling isn’t it. So much packaging to cope with! I’m beginning to think we need to turn the clock back and use cotton hankies, towelling nappies, wash and cleaning cloths rather than wipes for everything. And tea instead of teabags. I’m trying to buy lose rather than over-packaged where possible but had to thing again today when I defrosted some soup in one of those plastic Pour and Store bags. Are they reusable? If. It, what’s the best way to dispose of them? Should we cut up all plastic before throwing it away - I keep thinking of that poor turtle caught in one of those six pack plastic thingies.

Yes I used to love watching my nice white zorbit nappies flapping dry on the line.

I wish they’d find a way of recycling ‘disposable’ nappies. After 2 weeks of GC visiting we have 2 big black sacks to get rid of. When ours were babies we used mostly washable ones and I can’t get used to the waste generated by babies nowadays. We live in rural area and have no bin collection so got used to recycling and composting apart from a very small amount of rubbish which has to be brought to council depot (and paid for).

I spent my whole Anglesey cottage holiday this year making sure all the different coloured drawers were perfectly filled with the correct items. Phew!

Nature needs to buck up a bit with those plastic eating bacteria, as China is refusing to take our recycled plastic waste now.

Yes, nature has dealt pretty awesome stuff, like Ebola, famine, tsunami, hurricanes and devastating fires - to name but a few recent events! Happily though not in our country so we can continue to feel complacent.

I don't think plastic eating bacteria are going to do much to help the poor birds and marine creatures that are ingesting huge quantities of plastic and dying as a result ...

My council issued a leaflet saying we couldn't put food waste in the garden waste bin. However on the council website it said we could!!!! This is the sort of thing we're up against. Why councils can't work together and get us to use the same bins wherever we are and have the recycling more centralised I don't know. It's so difficult if you go on a self catering holiday and are faced with different bins and instructions!

Well, I am an inveterate optimist, om.

Nobody expected to find plastic-digesting bacteria!

Nature has dealt with some pretty awesome stuff already.

Plastics

Contact your local District Council for a leaflet. Different councils have different policies and resources for recycling.

Our is pretty good and their leaflet is easy to understand.

Re plastics Baggs I think you’ll find that it is over- optimistic to think nature will deal with it.

eglantine, yes, I'd come across that information about fleece garments recently. It is a bit depressing, isn't it? I don't have much in the way of fleece garments because I've never found them as warm or as breathable as natural fibres.

One thing that buoys me up in all this depressing news is that plastic is made from oil and oil is organic so I think that in the geologically long term Nature will deal with it. Bacteria have already been found that eat and digest plastic and, presumably, turn it into organic shit. The cycle of animal life is amazing.

I also use lots of tissues and find them in every pocket and up every sleeve even though I made a point of putting handkerchiefs in all of my coat pockets. [I only use handkerchiefs for my sniffy nose and when sneezing, though as I've always got a sniffy nose ].

I've bought lots of plastic containers from Wilkos to put food in to stop using so much cling film. What I'm still confused about are water bottles as they say they shouldn't be filled and reused but I do it all the time. I find them easier to carry around than the specific water containers which are too bulky. We read that tea bags don't break down so I'm going to try to use more loose tea but also take the outer bit off the tea bag before I put it in the compost bin, I know they don't break down because I sometimes use them to repair broken finger nails! Mary Creagh is campaigning with regards plastic bottles but she is just getting comments on her facebook page saying she should concentrate on 'important things'; as if the future of the planet isn't our responsibility. Lets hope Blue Planet II has the desired effect.

Discarded food is what upsets me the most, with so many people on our planet starving.
We don't leave much food uneaten, but give any leftovers to our chickens.
I don't think that's allowed now in the UK.
Even the foodbanks are restricting the types of food they can accept.

Baggs, fleece jackets are causing a pollution problem as every time they are washed minute plastic particles are flushed through the system and into the oceans.
I have given up wearing my fleeces because of that.
Even recycling has is problems.
We are tackling the whole thing from the wrong end. We need to produce and use less!

The confusion comes when local councils all seem to have different rules about what can and can’t be recycled. To my mind you should be able to recycle anything that has a symbol on it, but our council (who I would gladly recycle!), for one, thinks differently.

Yes I realise there are things made out of recycled plastic I was thinking more of individual craft ideas like the plastic bag mats I referred to
I would never put dirty jars etc in a recycling bin without washing they are surely useless if dirty you may as well throw into the landfill bin

www.google.com/url?q=https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/02/ikeas-latest-kitchen-is-made-of-recycled-plastic-bottles/&sa=U&ved=0ahUKEwiOm6_rmaLYAhVsM5oKHSqEA44QFggIMAE&client=internal-uds-cse&cx=005374784487575532108:zwr8u4lxoba&usg=AOvVaw37pSLSZfvrM92T7QOu92ax

The latest Ikea kitchen is made from recycled plastic and wood.