Plastic recycling

[Carmina Fothergill]

Does anyone know where plastic trays from frozen foods and similar items can be recycled in Warrington?

 

The recycling point at Birchwood used to accept type one and type two plastics, but it now only accepts bottles, regardless of the type of recyclable plastic any other items may be made from.

[Peter T]

The whole recycling thing is chaotic.

To Joe Soap, plastic is plastic.

[Dizzy]

Presume we will soon be able to put them in our new blue recycling bins.

 

from memory Stockton Heath tip has seperate facilities for:

 

Plastic (but not sure if its food tray type)

Clear Glass

Brown Glass

Wood

Garden Waste (green)

Metal

Unrecyclable costly waste

Electrical Waste

and a new one for Cardboard

 

...so they are getting better

[byrdy]

Clear Glass

Brown Glass

What about the GREEN Glass bin?

[Carmina Fothergill]

The whole recycling thing is chaotic.

To Joe Soap, plastic is plastic.

 

Yes, very true.

 

Plastics usually have a number on them. It used to be possible to recycle types one and two at Birchwood, and all people had to do was look at the item to see what number it was. It would have been easy if people had been told about that. If.

 

But now the information labels no longer refer to Recresco, who used to do the plastic recycling, but to something called `The Council.' I wonder if this might be the same `Council' that tells us we can recycle so much more because they've been so helpful? And yet now we can't recycle any kind of type one or two plastic any longer, but only bottles.

 

It's been worse for quite a while, actually. The recycling point used to be in the main car park, but for a couple of years it's been pushed out of the way in a small car park at the back - so people have to make a separate journey instead of simply parking and unloading their stuff before going to the shopping centre.

 

Of course this highlights the wider problem of driving to recycling centres in the first place. It's better to walk if possible, but it isn't always possible, so the next best option is to drive as part of a journey you have to make anyway. If that's the case, it helps if the recycling centre is where you'd be going, and not somewhere you have to make a separate journey to visit.

 

A friend of mine emailed his councillor after the elections a couple, of years ago, and pointed out that if two existing contracts were swapped round, a lot more items could be recycled. He never received a reply, which seems to indicate a lack of interest from the people who claim to care about recycling. Hmmm.

 

Things may improve if the collections of other types of household waste that have been promised from time to time actually materialise. Of course that means sending round some kind of large vehicle, which again reduces the environmental advantage of recycling, but maybe on the whole it would help, if it happens. The way things are going, I'll probably have a garageful of things to recycle by the time this service is introduced, if it ever is. Or maybe I should simply wait till I'm going to a different town with different priorities and take my recycleable items there?

[Bill]

I bought a new curtian rail last week and it came in a very large box made from type 4 recyclicable plastic.

 

I put it in the bin.

 

End of story.

 

Bill

[Dizzy]

shame on you Bill

 

What's type 4 recyclicable plastic though... is it what I just put in my bin

[ex padgate girl]

Why do we still produce plastic bottles, the majority go to landfill and i am sick of seeing bottles thrown onto bankings and wasteland.

Surely it would be better to bring back glass bottles with a returnable deposit as it used to be.

It was always my job to take the bottles back so i could get sweets, i would be so careful not to break any or it would mean that i got less money.

[Dizzy]

Good point EPG.

 

I remember the 'pop man' doing his rounds when I was younger and we always handed back our empty glass pop bottles which were then cleaned and re-used.

 

Problem is these days that 'pop' is not a once a week treat like it used to be it's now a daily necessity for kids.

[ex padgate girl]

Well maybe these big drinks companies could use a system where the children take back their glass bottles and they are refilled while they wait in the shop, they could do that as many times a day as they like with their own bottles. That way there would be not as many cans or bottles on the streets.

coca cola and companies like that could supply shops with a big vat of it rather like the barrels we have in a pub.

[ex padgate girl]

That way they would buy the inital bottle and in the future they would only pay for the contents, they would look after the bottle if they had to buy a new one everytime they lost or broke it.

 

Sorry im thinking far toooo much, its not good for a blonde. lol im getting a headache

[Dizzy]

I doubt they'd be able to take their used glass bottles back into shops for refilling....

 

Think possible germs.... think possible contamination..... think possible bacteria... think possibly being sued after little Jimmy gets a tummy bug after having his bottle refilled and his parents blame it on snotty Jo who filled his bottle just before Jimmy. Not to mention the health and safety implications of children carrying glass bottles

 

Although I am joking it would probably be true anyway with all the health and safety clap trap and fear of being sued that we all have to contend with these days

 

Guess I'm thinking too much too

[Bazj]

I would imagine most of the feral thugs we call children would be mugging and stabbing each other for the bottles to get the 10p deposits as well!

[asperity]

When I was in Ethiopia a few years ago, all the beer bottles were sent back to the brewery to be refilled. There were never any bottles thrown away, they were just too valuable, because a shortage of bottles meant less beer available!!

[Carmina Fothergill]

shame on you Bill

 

What's type 4 recyclicable plastic though... is it what I just put in my bin

 

In Warrington, it seems, yes.

 

I really don't know for certain about anywhere else, but I know I've seen items that are marked recyclable that can't be recycled in Warrington. Those are in addition to the items we used to be able to recycle and now can't (see my original post).

 

I notice no-one's come along and posted to this topic saying there are places in Warrington where type one and two items that aren't bottles can be recycled - let alone saying anything about types three to seven.

[Carmina Fothergill]

Well, there's some good news, anyway.

 

We're getting a new blue bin that will take steel and aluminium cans, cardboard, glass, paper, and plastic bottles.

 

On the downside, there's still no mention of non-bottle plastics and no reference to the existing grades of plastic, so my original question still stands.

 

It's good to see something happening, though, even if it is over two years after my friend told his councillor how steel cans and grades one to four of plastic could be recycled by redistributing existing contracts.

[Bill]

The new bins can't come soon enough for me because I'm right fed up trying to help the council meet their targets. I'm more than happy to try and recycle as much as possible but if past experience is anything to go by we'll end up with threats of fines if we put the wrong plastic in there.

 

On a slight aside, I was amazed to see the results of the councils public consultation (Homepage / Waste Watchers) where it appears that 99% of those taking part were in favour of importing rubbish into Warrington from other towns. I'm always suspicious of figures like that especially when it seems to go against what's said on open forums like this.

 

The last time the council made a claim of 99% being in favour of one of it's proposals, it was exposed as a politically motivated scam.

 

Could it be that the public panel in this instance were invited guests?

 

Or am I just being paranoid?

 

Bill

 

PS I think this question merits a new thread with a poll!

[Carmina Fothergill]

From previous experience I'd say you're definitely not being paranoid.

 

Incidentally, it's funny how the politicians were so keen to jump in when I posted the previous time, on the subject of voting. We haven't seen hide nor hair of them on this topic, where we're discussing the practicalities of something that needs to be sorted.

[Bill]

I?ve just had a beef baguette and a Danish pastry from the local Co-op. Both came in virtually identical clear plastic containers, both telling me to recycle them but one is made from type 3 plastic while the other?s type 6.

 

So what the heck to I do with these things other than chuck them in the normal bin? I?m certainly not going to drive around the town looking for some place that will take them.

 

When the new bins are introduced and the waste gets taken for sorting, are they actually going to read the almost invisible markings on such items and if not is there any point in marking such items for recycling?

 

Bill

[byrdy]

Just been Stockton Heath tip to recycle some cans,had to wait whilst a huge lorry emptied all the glass bottles banks into the back.He mixed all the clear,green,brown together,so what's the point of us separating them??