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My recycling bin wasn't emptied this morning, so I called the council 1/2 hour after all the other bins in the street were emptied to have a rant.
Showing remarkable efficiency (apparently someone comes round checking bins before collection and logs problems) I was told the reason was 'contaminated waste', specifically, the 2 pizza boxes which happened to be on top from last night. On checking, there were no remnants of pizza just the usual small fat marks! This apparently means immediate rejection from the cardboard waste processor and extra cost for the council. I now have a 2 week wait with a bin which is full and I'm a tad pissed off.
Has it happened to anyone else, or was I just unlucky after years of carefree pizza box recycling?
To be fair they do specifically say no pizza boxes on their flyers (ours do anyway)
Same here, used pizza boxes can be torn up and put in green waste in our council area. (grass cuttings,food scraps etc)
When they ask for recycling waste to be clean, they really mean it.
Whether there's a scientific reason or it's jobsworths I'm not sure. I know a major cardboard manufacturer is looking at how to adjust their manufacturing process to reflect variation in the quality of the recycled material they get.
Really? I've been sticking them in for years. There must be lots of cardboard food packaging that is similarly tainted.
Also, my council has a combined cardboard/plastic/metal recycling bin. How on earth do they expect to get 'clean' cardboard out of that, even if the rest is given a bit of a rinse by the householder?
Thought that was common knowledge these days.
The grease contaminates the newly recycled production making it potentially scrap also.
They only glance in when looking for the Bad Things, but if you've a pizza box at the top then yeah they'll reject it. Cardboard needs to be clean.
Our LA has a "dry" wheelie (cardboard, paper, tins, plastic) and "wet" wheelie (garden and food waste). Dirty cardboard and paper like fish and chip wrappers and pizza boxes make great liners for the bottom to stop the inevitable farage from building up too much.
Ok, all news to me and nothing on my council website specifically relating to pizza boxes. I did find this recycling page which is way worse than the boxes I put out.
Ours will take cardboard only if it fits into their special blue bag. Any extra cardboard results in your entire recycling collection being rejected.
Milk bottles not squashed = recycling collection denied.
The pettiness I can live with, but the same collection team then come around at Christmas angling for tips.
(ours do anyway)
Which is part of the problem. No one actually has a clue about what can be recycled, what goes with what. Ask your mates within your area and you'll get a range of 'understanding' (wonders what it's like in Germany...)
I always put the pizza lid in the recycling (if not manky) but not the base.
Our council obviously don't care! Never had a recycling bin rejected and all sorts goes in ours in various states of cleanliness.
They seem to take pizza bixes fine in Leeds. I rinse out can and stuff but pizza boxes just get wanged in there and I never had a bin rejected.
I find if the top six inches is full of nice clean Amazon and Naked Wine boxes, I can fill the rest with rotting corpses and nobody ever complains.
It really depends on your local council (for pettiness) and the recycling facility they use (for what they'll take). There's typically a percentage of acceptable contamination before the load is landfill.
Trying to get a definitive answer is tricky. I was "green champion" at our office at work for a while and had a hotline to their chosen recycling partner, so when people asked "can I recycle this?" I could find out what to do.
Domestic recycling though, at the old house I managed to follow breadcrumbs to the council's recycling company but then got stonewalled. I couldn't find anyone who would talk to me and knew the intricacies of whether Tetrapaks went in plastics, paper or general waste. The council collection was always first-rate though.
At the new place collection is a different story. They won't take separate bags (genius, I'll just fly-tip it then, shall I?) and we're back on this stupid bag & box scheme that even Hyndburn BC realised was shit and sacked off (ho ho!) about ten years ago. They get collected fortnightly, if I have people over I could fill the box in a weekend. I've taken to just not using it for glass, I'm driving to the recycling centre myself when I've got a bagful of bottles and jars.
This apparently means immediate rejection from the cardboard waste processor and extra cost for the council.
I reckon this is spin put out by councils - there's no ruddy way a recycling bin lorry doesn't contain some contaminated waste. They'd all be rejected as they pulled into the recycling yard!
Our council has one green bag for everything, which then gets collected in a regular bin lorry complete with compacter. I have no idea how anything is "recyclable" after that.
there’s no ruddy way a recycling bin lorry doesn’t contain some contaminated waste
Our council appears to use exactly the same vehicles for both types of collection...
Our carefully-separated waste is probably headed for the same landfill as the rest of it.
Milk bottles not squashed = recycling collection denied.
One of the worst things you can do is throw bottles out unsquashed with the caps screwed on. Not only are they not flattened, they can't be flattened. If the caps aren't on then that's just jobsworthing.
I crush plastic bottles underfoot then screw the caps on to keep them flat. Ditto cans (though obviously there's no caps!) I still have a full recycling box halfway to collection day.
Our council has one green bag for everything, which then gets collected in a regular bin lorry complete with compacter. I have no idea how anything is “recyclable” after that.
That's what's called DMR - Dry Mixed Recycling. Bigger plants can handle it.
Our carefully-separated waste is probably headed for the same landfill as the rest of it.
It's entirely possible. Like I said, it depends entirely on your local council.
I reckon this is spin put out by councils – there’s no ruddy way a recycling bin lorry doesn’t contain some contaminated waste. They’d all be rejected as they pulled into the recycling yard!
That's factored in to the calculations, your pizza boxes aren't.
Part of the solution is to have a Draconian packaging tax, another is a national standard and most importantly to educate
The annoying thing about all this is the variation across the country.
I've never heard that you can't put contaminated cardboard in the bin & have never had a bin uncollected. We get fish & chips in cardboard boxes & they similarly go in the recycling without issue.
There seems to be frequent changes about what can and can't be recycled as well.
Then there is all the stuff that cannot be recycled by the council that we save up and take to a Terracycle recycling centre. I made a little rack to store all that stuff in & then have a large box and several bags in the garage that it gets sorted into - every so often I do a trip to the Terracycle place & leave that all with them.
We have no food waste bin option whereas my Sister, Brother & parents all do have.
I crush plastic bottles underfoot then screw the caps on to keep them flat. Ditto cans (though obviously there’s no caps!) I still have a full recycling box halfway to collection day.
I was told that crushing cans makes recycling them harder.
I thought it all went off to be sorted (we just shove all recycling in one wheelie bin), so they reject the dirty stuff on the conveyor belt.
I always wondered about parcel tape as 99% of our cardboard has bits of tape on it (I do try and remove most, but I'd be amazed if most people bother).
Part of the solution is to have a Draconian packaging tax
I'd back that. I'd also back the standardisation of plastic bottles - looking round our bathroom at all the fancy shapes, colours and designs there's just no need for it and it's got to make recycling harder. Lets go all North Korean hairstyles with a few approved designs to pick from! 🙂
Crap like disposable floor wipes should be banned too.
That’s factored in to the calculations, your pizza boxes aren’t.
The pizza box will be - if it's half way down the bin it won't be seen until it's tipped into the back of the lorry, if at all.
As for those Persil 'Dirt is Good' adverts... stop putting your product in plastic boxes then you muppets. Carboard boxes and wash powder worked just fine! 🙂
Our council just leave pizza boxes behind but don't refuse to take the lot.
I have no idea what they do with the cardboard that goes into the containers at the recycling centre though – how do they ensure no pizza boxes are in there?
We can't put black plastic (namely food containers) in our plastic recycling box as Cheshire West's plastic sorting / recycling machine can't recognise it and throws a wobbler.
I hate our cardboard recycling. It comes every 4 weeks and the bin is invariably full after a week now we live in everything-delivered-land.
I didn't know the pizza box thing, though.
I was told that crushing cans makes recycling them harder.
Really? First I've heard of that.
In any case, me not crushing them will make recycling impossible as they'll have to go into general waste instead cos there's no room in the box. Somewhat ironically, we have an oversized bin for that. It's almost like Burnley Council don't want us to recycle.
most of the crud you sort into your recycling ends up in landfill somewhere anyway (either in the uk or a third world beach) as there is no market for most of teh 'recycling'.
obviously its annoying they dont collect it and take it away but the ignorance of recycling goes deeper than a dirty pizza box.
most of the crud you sort into your recycling ends up in landfill somewhere anyway (either in the uk or a third world beach) as there is no market for most of teh ‘recycling’.
Certainly plastic, it's just exported and either burnt in Asia or dumped in the Pacific.
AIUI Cardboard is recycled in the UK, during the 1st lockdown they was an appeal for recycling collections to restart as the UK was running our of cardboard packaging, which depends heavily on recycling.
Our council accepts pizza boxes. Good job really as my son's doing Dominos deliveries, and usually comes back with a pizza most nights (error orders), which he scoffs - you can do that aged 21.
Really? First I’ve heard of that
https://www.recyclingbins.co.uk/blog/why-crushing-cans-can-make-them-harder-to-recycle/
I thought it all went off to be sorted (we just shove all recycling in one wheelie bin), so they reject the dirty stuff on the conveyor belt.
I always thought this too. This is part of the reason I often don't crush stuff, to make it easier to be sorted...
So given almost none of us know what can and cant be recycled, plus the geographical variations of councils and recycling plants - what happens to the rejected bins then ?
Land fill, or shipped off to the far east where they are dumped in the sea because its too costly to recycle.
I have a sneaking suspicion recycling makes us feel good, but in reality it does nothing to stop actual consumption, which is the problem. Marketing will have you buying stuff to replace last year stuff till the planet melts.
Huh. I did not know that. Thanks.
One of the worst things you can do is throw bottles out unsquashed with the caps screwed on. Not only are they not flattened, they can’t be flattened. If the caps aren’t on then that’s just jobsworthing.
Plastic bottles (eg a Coke bottle) go in the box with the caps off. I fixed the milk bottle issue by jetting steam from the coffee machine into an empty bottle for ten seconds and then screwing the lid back on.
The heat softens the plastic and air pressure flattens the bottle as it cools.
You can flatten a milk bottle with the cap on just by standing on it - the plastic is really soft and the cap just flies off under the pressure. Clear plastic bottles seem indestructible due to the pressure they have to tolerate when filled with carbonated drinks.
Part of the solution is to have a Draconian packaging tax, another is a national standard and most importantly to educate
I think manufacturers should be responsible for the full lifecycle of the packaging. I don’t think packaging tax is draconian, it might speed up the moves to more recyclable packaging.
I notice some products now coming in reduced plastic packaging. But it seems the plastic you're left with is possibly less recyclable. E.g. a plastic bottle vs. a plastic refill bag for cleaning products. The bottle would go into the council recycling, the refill bag has to go to landfill.... unless you seek out somewhere to recycle it.
Soft plastics are being collected by supermarkets but what do they do with them? Are they reprocessed into new bags, film etc. or just shredded and used as filler or packing? The latter is not really recycling in my view.
One of the worst things you can do is throw bottles out unsquashed with the caps screwed on.
I would happily put anyone who does this in the back of the truck and I'd feed them in feet first so it doesn't finish them of too quickly. If I'm on a round with boxes and having to fill a service bin it means far more trips to the truck as you can't squash them.
You'd be amazed how many people can't be bothered to wash or squash anything and plenty like to leave a slice of pizza still in the box. I've been on a bin round today, actually emptied my own this morning, one half filled carrier bag, and plenty of houses where they don't bother to put anything in the recycling bin.
One of the worst things you can do is throw bottles out unsquashed with the caps screwed on. Not only are they not flattened, they can’t be flattened. If the caps aren’t on then that’s just jobsworthing.
Our instructions ask us to keep the lids on so they don't get lost in the processing!
They empty our recycling bins into dumper trucks with the crusher going anyway, so I suspect a lot of bottles etc get crushed in those before they make it to sorting.
You’d be amazed how many people can’t be bothered to wash or squash anything and plenty like to leave a slice of pizza still in the box. I’ve been on a bin round today, actually emptied my own this morning, one half filled carrier bag, and plenty of houses where they don’t bother to put anything in the recycling bin.
Part of the problem is every county has different rules, bins, boxes, bags (Tenby). Until Cambridge and South Cambs combined services we had streets where each side had different coloured bins and different rules for recycling. Every time we go somewhere else in the UK, its all different again. Combine that with students lets, AirB&B etc and no one quite knows what goes where and what the rules are.
I'm also fairly convinced that most of the plastic just gets dumped in the pacific, so I'm actually accelerating global warming by wasting hot water etc washing it all....
A couple of things I would like clarification on:
1. Of the 7 types of plastic shown on the recycling symbol, One (polystyrene) can't be recycled. Only types 1 and 2 have a ready market as recycled materials. All the rest can be recycled but are difficult, if not impossible, to sell for reuse, so probably end up in landfill.
2. Items which have different plastics bonded together can contaminate bales collected for recycling. So what happens to drinks bottles which are mainly recyclable plastic but have a sleeve of another plastic shrunk on? I'm sure most people don't remove the sleeve.
All the rest can be recycled but are difficult, if not impossible, to sell for reuse, so probably end up in landfill.
Worse than that, just because it is possible to recycle it, doesn't mean it's commerically viable. There are so few actual plastic recycling facilities in the world that the available capacity is far less than the amount of waste created. Hence it either gets incinerated or landfilled in the EU or worse, exported for "recycling" to a country with no plastic recycling facilities and then dumped in the pacific.
I suspect that half the plastic bottles I wash and shove in the recycling bin end up bobbing about the pacific after our local authority sells it on for recycling in the 3rd world (mainly via middlemen so it's not quite so obvious what is going on).
As I mentioned before, the number of places taking plastic for recycling has increased. First supermarkets were taking plastic carrier bags, then logos appeared on packaging saying they could also be recycled with carrier bags, e.g. bags for kitchen roll, frozen peas. Now some shops are taking all soft plastics. Where are these ending up?
Where are these ending up?
Dumped in Malaysia.
There's no money in recycling single use plastic bags and thin wrappers. They just get bundled up in their 1000s and exported to the 3rd world.