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Science/nature/environment

What do you do with YOUR plastic waste?

(13 Posts)
ExD Fri 22-Jan-21 11:48:10

Our local council will not accept 'coloured plastic, plastic bags, plastic wrap or film'. So I put mine in with the household waste. I used to burn it but was told this damaged the upper atmosphere (?) so I stopped.
How do YOU get rid of YOURS?

tanith Fri 22-Jan-21 11:49:33

Same it goes in the general waste.

biba70 Fri 22-Jan-21 11:56:37

Very different here in Switzerland. Only PET plastic is recycled, and none from bottles that have contained oils or cleaning products as they interfere with the recycling process.

Instead, plastic which is non recyclable (well it could be, but would be more costly and more polluting to recycle than not) - is avoided as much as poss- but still much more to do. Refill pouches for soaps, washing liquid, conditioner, bleach, shower gel, etc. And boxes for apples, delicate fruit, eggs, made out of cardboard. Boxes for Q tips made out of cardboard, and with the Qtips made our of cardboard too, etc. All non recyclable are incinerated in very efficient incinerators with very effective pollution filters, and energy produced used to heat local area. NO LANDFILL.

At the end of the day, the answer is not 'how to get rid of ' - but how to avoid all plastics non easily recyclable.

lemongrove Fri 22-Jan-21 12:04:05

Councils vary widely on recyclables and household waste.
My own are very keen on recycling as much as possible, so food waste in one bin, recyclables such as plastics, cardboard paper etc in another, garden waste another and then general household waste which is incinerated, nothing goes to landfill.

Welshwife Fri 22-Jan-21 12:27:12

Where we lived in U.K. were like that Lg. Here we have very little in our general bin as we have a compost bin in the garden. Most plastic we get is able to go in the recycle bin and I know the company taking it thoroughly washes everything. We are told not to wash things as they still do it and have efficient ways of doing it.
I am surprised that there is not more of these digester things dealing with food waste etc. We are disappointed at times at how much packaging we get and cannot avoid. I get as much loose fruit and veg as I can and the bags the shop uses are now recyclable too.
‘Which‘ magazine comes in a compostable envelope now - does anyone know why there are so few shops using paper carriers? The supermarket bags here are very strong and last years which is a positive!

Septimia Fri 22-Jan-21 12:51:00

DH tends to put it ALL in the recycling, on the grounds that it will annoy the council into organising the recycling of all plastics......

Casdon Fri 22-Jan-21 13:17:13

My council is really good with recycling, they sort the different types of hard plastics so we put it all into one bin. My biggest concern is the soft plastics, which we put in with our normal waste, and which take up a big proportion of the bin every time. I’d love to avoid them, but in practice it’s so hard to do - bubble wrap, bulk packed cans (eg 4 tins of sweet corn, tomatoes etc.), and a plastic bag round every different component if you buy something like kitchen equipment.

yggdrasil Fri 22-Jan-21 13:20:33

I am confused with what my council will accept. I put milk bottles and other plastic bottles/dispensers in the recycling and it all goes. But when I put plastic trays there it all got left behind by the binmen.

M0nica Fri 22-Jan-21 13:26:42

Our Council, with one of the highest recycling rates in the country gives us a big green bin for recycleable watse, which is sorted, mainly mechanically at their waste facility.

I put anything I think will be recyclable in the green bin. Plastic film etc I put in a plastic bag and when it is full tie it up and put it in the green bin.

In France (where I have a vague memory of our holday home) there is a container at the tip specifically takes plastic film, I have been known to take plastic waste to France because I know the film will be recycled

lovebeigecardigans1955 Fri 22-Jan-21 14:29:59

Milk and detergent bottles can go in our recycling but other plastics have to go in the ordinary waste. I try not to buy things in unrecyclable plastic but it's difficult to avoid this completely.

SueDonim Fri 22-Jan-21 16:07:41

Ours gets collected by the council. They’ve got a pretty good record for recycling refuse.

ExD Fri 22-Jan-21 21:47:26

I don't like all that plastic going into the ordinary household bin. I wonder what happens to the recycled waste, how is it actually recycled.

Ultimer Fri 16-Jul-21 13:01:55

First of all, of course, I try not to acquire it, although it is not easy and sometimes impossible. And we use the one that we bought to the last - as containers or consumables. I used to just sort everything that gets sorted, but I've become even more careful with the environment thanks to MyImpactPower. It seemed interesting to me to see what NFT has to do with it, but in the end, by my own example, I realized that their initiative really works.