Metal vs Plastic.

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Metal vs Plastic.
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Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15985

Posted: Fri Apr 04, 14 6:18 am Post subject:

Some plastics are not what they seem. Even when I went for my first job in 1970 I was told that some are layered, so you might get a simple looking bag that has three layers. Yes, most 'hard' plastic items are stamped with a number for recycling, but most of our plastic waste is film or bags and they don't have a number on them.

Some county food hygiene people are very funny about reusing even glass bottles, so I would suggest that you check with yours before expecting to recycle.

For places where we can easily deal with recycling like farmers markets that we go to each month, we have little dumpy sacks for our logs and charge a deposit. It works out quite well. They have the advantage of being easy to carry too. For outlets like farm shops it is a bit more difficult, and net sacks are the best way. Some trading standards can get rather awkward I am afraid, so hessian is not a good option. A few years ago a particular one told all the market traders that they were not allowed to sell to anyone that asked for things in lb and oz. That was withdrawn after a few months, and most of them carried on regardless, but we always have to have weights with kg first, and lb is optional, so 1lb of honey has to be labelled 454g even though it is a moot point as to whether the degree of accuracy implied is correct (scientifically), as the scales only need to be accurate to about 5g.

Hairyloon

Joined: 20 Nov 2008
Posts: 15425
Location: Today I are mostly being in Yorkshire.

Posted: Fri Apr 04, 14 7:28 am Post subject:

Mistress Rose wrote:

but most of our plastic waste is film or bags...

"Our" as a nation, or yours?
I'm not convinced by the former.

Quote:

Some county food hygiene people are very funny about reusing even glass bottles...

If they're funny, then I'll laugh at them: I don't believe the law allows them to make that kind of decision.

Quote:

1lb of honey has to be labelled 454g even though it is a moot point as to whether the degree of accuracy implied is correct (scientifically), as the scales only need to be accurate to about 5g.

I believe the accuracy is not important as long as you don't sell short measure.

Hairyloon

Joined: 20 Nov 2008
Posts: 15425
Location: Today I are mostly being in Yorkshire.

Posted: Sat Apr 19, 14 8:45 am Post subject:

dpack wrote:

metal is easy to sort into type mixed plastic is not

If it is so easy, then what are hard disks made of?

pollyanna

Joined: 03 Nov 2012
Posts: 221

Posted: Sat Apr 19, 14 11:35 am Post subject:

All glass bottle put in recycle bins are sent for crushing, either to be used as-is (building materials, road surfaces, etc) or made into new bottles.

Metal collected in recycling is sorted, firstly, using magnets. Although they don't seem to do it now, I well-remember being paid by weight for aluminium cans which we took to a supermarket car park periodically.

Here in Wales we are apparently the part of the UK currently recycling the most. Though how eco-friendly is it for Pembrokeshire to be sending the stuff to Oxford for sorting? Carmarthenshire have an exemplary rubbish site near Carmarthen.

Hairyloon

Joined: 20 Nov 2008
Posts: 15425
Location: Today I are mostly being in Yorkshire.

Posted: Sat Apr 19, 14 4:00 pm Post subject:

pollyanna wrote:

All glass bottle put in recycle bins are sent for crushing, either to be used as-is (building materials, road surfaces, etc) or made into new bottles.

But as discussed elsewhere: why not wash the bottles and use them again as bottles?

Quote:

Metal collected in recycling is sorted, firstly, using magnets.

Easy enough for cans: they are either steel or aluminium. Copper and lead are easy enough to recognise, but I've got all sorts in my random metal box...

Quote:

Although they don't seem to do it now, I well-remember being paid by weight for aluminium cans which we took to a supermarket car park periodically.

You can still get cash for cans, you just might have to take them to your local metal yard. Possibly that is down to regulations: the chap in the car park would need a license.

Quote:

Though how eco-friendly is it for Pembrokeshire to be sending the stuff to Oxford for sorting?

I think that ours goes further, but I forget where to.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46235
Location: yes

Posted: Sat Apr 19, 14 4:46 pm Post subject:
west africa is a possible destination

pollyanna

Joined: 03 Nov 2012
Posts: 221

Posted: Sat Apr 19, 14 6:02 pm Post subject:
Re-fill bottles? Take a look at waste bottles. Except for wine bottles most them are different shapes and sizes. Nightmare. Crushed bottles can be made into new bottles relatively easily and cheaply. And they are.

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15985

Posted: Sun Apr 20, 14 7:01 am Post subject:
In the past most bottles had a deposit on them, something like 3d or 6d ( approx. 11/2p and 21/2p) so were returned to the shop for a refund and were sent back for refilling. Children often made quite a good bit of pocket money finding odd bottles that had been thrown away.

Hairyloon

Joined: 20 Nov 2008
Posts: 15425
Location: Today I are mostly being in Yorkshire.

Posted: Sun Apr 20, 14 7:50 am Post subject:

Mistress Rose wrote:

In the past most bottles had a deposit on them, something like 3d or 6d ( approx. 11/2p and 21/2p) so were returned to the shop for a refund...

I believe that milkmen have also been known to reuse bottles occasionally.

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15985

Posted: Sun Apr 20, 14 10:13 am Post subject:

Yes, they used to of course, but now that it is mainly in plastic, that gets recycled rather than reused, except to be converted to things like plant labels, wax pouring jugs etc.

I didn't include them because it was a normal thing to just put the bottles out each day rather than take them back to the shop.

Must say in our early days canal boating, before milk was sold everywhere in plastic bottles, it was a problem sometimes finding fresh milk, and somewhere to take the bottles back to.

onemanband

Joined: 26 Dec 2010
Posts: 1473
Location: NCA90

Posted: Sun Apr 20, 14 3:18 pm Post subject:

Back to the money for plastics.....
Just been having another search as I sometimes have quantities of plastic and if I can save money (or the world

) by recycling it then I would.
It does seem tho that unless I have regular, very large amounts of sorted plastics I am still stuck with my current 2 options.
1) separate plastics and pay to tip at reduced rate.I will need minimum quarter ton...or....
2) separate plastic and throw it on the plastic pile before I tip the rest on the landfill pile. I will still get charged landfill rate.

I found this site. Has a directory of reprocessors.
The "understanding barriers to plastic recycling. A Consumer insight study" makes interesting reading. Q4 "Which materials are you unsure about ?" "Any mention of plastic 63%"
And page 24 recycling behaviour by age .......18-34years only 42% recycle all plastics. Gets better with age... 65+ 64% recycle all plastic.

Hairyloon

Joined: 20 Nov 2008
Posts: 15425
Location: Today I are mostly being in Yorkshire.

Posted: Sun Apr 20, 14 4:13 pm Post subject:

onemanband wrote:

Back to the money for plastics...

Not so much the money: the rate does seem established and not unreasonable.
It is the where do you go with it?

Quote:

It does seem tho that unless I have regular, very large amounts of sorted plastics I am still stuck...

So how many others are in exactly the same position?
With a bit of organisation, you would have large amounts of sorted plastics.

Quote:

And page 24 recycling behaviour by age .......18-34years only 42% recycle all plastics. Gets better with age... 65+ 64% recycle all plastic.

That is very disappointing. I would hope the young people to be be keener.
Be interesting to see the figures with narrower age bands.

onemanband

Joined: 26 Dec 2010
Posts: 1473
Location: NCA90

Posted: Mon Apr 21, 14 9:57 pm Post subject:

Hairyloon wrote:

It is the where do you go with it?

I only know one place that will take it and that is a waste transfer station/scrap yard. They are the only place I have found that allows me to segregate waste (plastic/timber/plasterboard/green/cardboard/electrical). Everywhere else you tip as landfill or soil/hardcore.
Even the council run transfer stations don't do segregation even tho their domestic sites do.

I guess eventually scrap yards will start taking plastic and that may be the place to look rather than looking at reprocessors that want bailed quantities.

Hairyloon

Joined: 20 Nov 2008
Posts: 15425
Location: Today I are mostly being in Yorkshire.

Posted: Mon Apr 21, 14 10:50 pm Post subject:

onemanband wrote:

Even the council run transfer stations don't do segregation even tho their domestic sites do.

Even?!

onemanband

Joined: 26 Dec 2010
Posts: 1473
Location: NCA90

Posted: Mon Apr 21, 14 11:15 pm Post subject:
Suprisingly the council run transfer stations don't do segregation despite their domestic sites doing it. does that make more sense ? or were you expressing a lack of suprise about council facilities ?

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