When you put cardboard in, can the machines cope with tape? I've got some boxes that were covered in tape and maybe some bits of plastic, not sure if I should bin them or recycle.
Maybe if I put them in their own bags the recycling plant can decide...?
Is it too much of a ballache to just remove most of the tape/plastic?
Hell yes, there's as much tape as there is cardboard nearly.
Yeah, remove it.
Plastic tape does contaminate cardboard recycling.
It'll just be burned, no?
Cardboard fetches a decent price for recycling, so unless gas prices go even further up, most card will be refashioned into more boxes.
When you put cardboard in, can the machines cope with tape?
No.
Domestic recycling is essentially a waste of time. The council will only take valuable material, so good quality paper and card, metal is ok, but not other contaminates.
Also, soft plastic tubs, but not the film on top or thin film labels. A lot of this will be floated out in water tanks though.
Any glass, any colour.
That's about it.
Any composite material like Tetra-paks for milk, composite items like an old bike/microwave etc have to be dismantled and sorted into different materials.
Hard plastic or thermoset, forget it.
soft plastic tubs, but not the film on top or thin film labels
That's what I thought, and I still habitually rip the top film off and bung that in the normal bin. But I saw recently that a packet (of chicken breasts or tortellini or something like that) suggested that the whole lot should go in the recycling, film and all. Who's right?
Well there's a difference between what's recyclable in principle (which is what the manufacturers will put on), what is practically recyclable, what your council is actually prepared to do, and what will actually get done depending on the condition of what you put in.
Tesco are collecting soft plastics at their stores in the South (and possibly elsewhere) to make sure that film tops, crisp packets, bread bags etc are recycled. Sort of closed loop as they're buying the output, for the time being.
Some LAs may also be doing the film stuff.
interesting, ta! (says "every large store in the UK" in that link btw)Tesco are collecting soft plastics at their stores in the South (and possibly elsewhere) to make sure that film tops, crisp packets, bread bags etc are recycled.
Didn't [I]really[/I] know whether that sort of stuff was recyclable or not tbh! Looks like I've got yet another recycling bin now 🤣 Wonder if "soft plastic" includes the tape OP is too idle to peel off his boxes? 😉
Tesco are collecting soft plastics at their stores in the South (and possibly elsewhere) to make sure that film tops, crisp packets, bread bags etc are recycled.
As do Co-op for anyone who's interested.
To add to the comments about soft plastics at Tesco etc. please look to see if there is a Terracycle recycling place near to you. We have one a 15 mins drive away & they take a ton of stuff that the council recycling won't touch....
cat food pouches, biscuit wrappers, chocolate wrappers, crisp packets, printer cartridges, various brands of coffee pods, bread bags (although can now do them through Tesco), old pens, toothbrushes & toothpaste tubes etc. cheese packs, dishwasher tab packs, beauty product bottles etc.
You can search for somewhere near you, here:
Looks useful, thanks. But they don't seem to take printer cartridges, anywhere, unless I'm doing the search wrong.
We need a refundable tax/surcharge on all plastics, glass and metals.
Just think of the number of bottles, caps, wrappers we (thoughtlessly?) throw whilst thinking we're doing the right thing by putting them in the bin.
We are now down to one full kitchen bin bag and a bathroom bin bag every 2 weeks and we send off/drop off as much as we can recycling wise. We use as much of the schemes on terracycle as we can but it takes some sorting!
Coop also take soft plastics which we drop stuff off to every week.
I do not know once we do our bit if the stuff is actually recycled but we are trying. Also trying to buy stuff that doesn't have ridiculous amounts of packaging!
Worst stuff we had was from Japan as family visited there a few years back and gave us some presents. It was a never ending unwrap to get to whatever was inside (turned out to be biscuit type snacks), it was crazy!
@greybeard. My local one does although you can normally also take them to Tesco.
Maybe our place recycles them through a different scheme (not Terracycle).
This might help
https://www.recyclenow.com/what-to-do-with/printer-cartridges-1
I read somewhere that of the 7 types of plastic only types 1 and 2 can readily be recycled, polyurethane can't and the remaining types can, technically, be recycled but there is no market for the product so are likely to be landfilled. I haven't been able to confirm or substantiate this.
To answer original question - yes, it will go. When the paper and board is mixed up in a huge bucket to make paper mache, there’s a rope that hangs in there as it all gets mixed about to make the soup. All the tape and bits of polythene end up sticking and wrapping round the rope, so it all gets fished out while the paper fibres go through the system to make more paper.
@rickos that's what I was hoping. After all all the boxes have at least some tape on.
@stumpy01. Thanks again.
This might help
https://www.recyclenow.com/what-to-do-with/printer-cartridges-1/a >
Unfortunately the don't take the cartridges from my printer (Canon 570/571). I have a box of them waiting until I can find somewhere, but they may have to go to landfill as it looks as if nobody wants them.
Wonder if “soft plastic” includes the tape OP is too idle to peel off his boxes? 😉
I’m glad OP is well versed enough to not be hurt by that comment when he asks, essentially, “what should I do with all this tape”.
Edit: im now looking at smiley faces In your post and realised I may also be having humour fail so just ignore me.
The LDPE film normally gets floated off in giant water tanks.
It can go in with plastic bag recycling you get outside supermarkets.
It's PET (water bottles), HDPE (shampoo bottles) and PP (food containers) that are recycled most commonly from your home.
Polystyrene is the 'worst' and PVC is also hard to recycle, so not collected.
Mind you, reduce and re-use is always better then recycling.
There are methods to reduce the contaminates that are received in recycling plants, but obv the less that goes in, the better.
What are Coop and Tesco doing with the soft plastics they collect?
According to the internet sites that ironically recycle company press releases they are using a company called Berry Global in Derbyshire to turn the plastic into bin bags (slightly ironic to make into a disposable product).
The collection points must be a national thing as there is one in Redcar. On the last trip there it was noted that everything in Tesco seemed expensive, even compared to Sainsburys but their car park is convenientish if you have other places to go in Redcar and will be less than 2 hours.
We now have a large bag of bags and film waiting for the next visit.
Not really a long term solution then and barely recycling by turning single use into double use.
We've been taking plastics to Coop.
I have noticed that a few products are now coming in "less plastic" packaging. However this just seems to substitute hard plastic tubs for soft plastic film combined with cardboard. Not really solving the issue, as it seems they are substituting with something less recyclable, ie there's now more plastic film.
they don’t seem to take printer cartridges, anywhere,
Carts I've bought of late (HP) have had envelopes to return the old ones. Maybe see if Canon themselves will accept them?
Would it be a bad thing if it was made law that everything had to come in tins or other standardised packaging?
Waitrose has collection point for stuff labelled "recycle at larger stores" but it is only a tiny recepticle at our local store. Will look out for terracycle 👍
Would it be a bad thing if it was made law that everything had to come in tins or other standardised packaging?
Sort of...
The weight and volume required for transport would add huge amounts of carbon to the supply chain. Not to mention high amounts of energy to produce and recycle the standardised packages. Single use plastics (or double use) are much, much lower in terms of carbon impact. But they can end up in the sea as microplastics. What's the least bad option?
To be fair to the supermarkets, they really are doing their best. For example, every own brand Tesco item has been subject to a packaging review and approached from the angle of minimising environmental impact. That's in no way driven by legislation, it's good business sense and doing the right thing.
Cucumbers for example retain the film because it makes them last longer and less susceptible to damage in transit. So the small amount of plastic is preventing much larger impacts from wasted food. Think of the energy wasted into growing and transporting a cuc that gets thrown away.
But nay-sayers point this film out as some sort of environmental terrorism when it is in fact the opposite.
Not an expert by any means, but look in the recycling skips outside any factory - do you think they employ someone to take tape of boxes!? It all goes in and the recycling companies keep fetching it. Our waste cardboard gets fetched and tape has never been mentioned as an issue.
They must be able to cope with those big staples too. 🙂
I'd disagree that the film recycling is of little use. Since we started collecting the bags and film that won't go in the big recycling bin we collect 1 or 2 bread bags full of this plastic a week (including the breadbags) and so that is less to the incinerator / landfill.
If the amount collected is enough to replace virgin plastic in Tesco bin bags at present then that is a start. If most people move to doing this then more products will get made with the recycled material. This is an area of recycling that has been fairly neglected in the past.
Using less of the stuff would be better but all waste reduction helps and we are slightly at the mercy of the supermarkets so we need to both participate in their recycling schemes and push them to do more to improve further.
With the tape on boxes a few internet shops have now moved to paper tape on their boxes which is presumably recyclable with the card.
Tesco are collecting soft plastics at their stores in the South (and possibly elsewhere) to make sure that film tops, crisp packets, bread bags etc are recycled.
As do Co-op for anyone who’s interested.
Sorry to be the cynic here, but they're probably only doing it because theres some sort of tax break involved.
What’s the least bad option?
Some sort of biodegradable plastic I'd imagine.
@slowol bin bags go in the bin though, so that can't be cyclical. If plastic container film was recycled into plastic container film then we'd be onto a winner?
@andrewreay
Cucumbers for example retain the film because it makes them last longer and less susceptible to damage in transit. So the small amount of plastic is preventing much larger impacts from wasted food. Think of the energy wasted into growing and transporting a cuc that gets thrown away.
I was wondering if subsidies for allowing for "sacrificial" fruit and veg would work, e.g. no packaging but you accept some items will be lost protecting the majority. In your example which is better overall, throwing away some cucumbers or throwing away the plastic? The subsidy would be to cover the lost produce
@dmorts bin bags may not be recycled but it is removing (a very small amount of) demand for virgin plastic so a start. Twice used plastic is nearly twice as good (probably quite significant percentage loss in the cycle too).
Sorry to be the cynic here, but they’re probably only doing it because theres some sort of tax break involved.
No tax breaks. Look it up. All funded by the supermarkets and the recycler, who would only do it because the supermarkets have committed to buy the products for a fixed period and price.
Some sort of biodegradable plastic I’d imagine.
They just degrade into micro plastics that end up in the oceans and / or food chain. Biodegradable plastics are a bit of a diversion from the underlying problem.
subsidies for allowing for “sacrificial” fruit and veg
The trouble is that's funding waste. The net result would be worse environmentally, paying for stuff that will never be consumed. Eliminating waste is the better answer, but the cost of that is plastic film.
hey just degrade into micro plastics that end up in the oceans and / or food chain.
Currently perhaps but I'm thinking long term. For example cotton* shopping bags have a limited life but will (or should) degrade in the same way that any other natural plant material would.
Or novel ways of using cardboard for protecting them. You can get cardboard filler for oranges and stuff.
I was wondering if subsidies for allowing for “sacrificial” fruit and veg would work, e.g. no packaging but you accept some items will be lost protecting the majority.
We could genetically engineer a cucumber with a second skin around the outside...
* yes, I know cotton is damaging to produce in the first place.
TBF the plastic bag charge has been effective in cutting waste bags floating around.
I just don't think all action should be at the point of consumption.
There are huge industrial/agricultural/transport/energy processes which massively damage the environment much more than household product containers ever will.
Big changes coming through the new Environment Act 2021...
Deposit Return Scheme on some or all drinks containers, supposedly by 2024. We'll have to pay a deposit on these whether we like it or not, then redeem the deposit by posting the container through a Reverse Vending Machine. This may increase recycling and reduce litter.
Plastic Packaging Tax, starts this April. Tax applied to packaging with less than 30% recycled content. Should stimulate plastic market, and help fund better UK-based recycling infrastructure.
Extended Producer Responsibility - aimed at making Packaging producers fully liable for the costs of recovering and recycling the materials they place on the market- may come in from 2024. Packaging producers pay into a pot, based on volume in marketplace and ease of recycling (harder to recycle items attract higher fees). Should again deter use of difficult to recycle items, with funding intended to support new UK infrastructure, and allow councils to claim funding for Packaging collected for recycling.
Current lack of recycling infrastructure means widespread collection of "flexibles" (I.e. plastic film, bread bags, etc) unlikely before 2026, by which time the measures above should have provided the private sector investment and incentive needed to provide sufficient capacity to recycle this sustainably...
I don't think the Terracycle and CoOp/Tesco schemes are really sustainable as can't be scaled up sufficiently, and it's not always clear what they do with the material. When asked in the past they've said "commercially senstive".
