Plastics at bring centers

yop

Lads,
We have decided in our new home to have no refuse collection but to sort out all the recyclables ourself, so now I have a rack in the house with containers for each plastic, paper, cardboard, tin, glass, etc

Now I have noticed that over the Xmas that we have a lot more plastic wrappers so to speak, from the wrappers around shirt packaging, bacon wrappers, platic containers from coleslaw, the plastic holders which hold say perfume or deodorant sets, plastic which wraps around a pack of cheese slices

The question I have is can these be recycled at all, the guy in the bring centre seems to think that only milk containers and yogurt containers can go into the "plastics" container, even butter tubs cannot go in. Is he right?

RangeR

To the best of my knowledge, these CAN be recylced but they aren't. From what I hear, it is not economical to recycle those sort or soft plastics.


You can bring them to the bring center but they might not accept them.

prospect

I asked this question at the Kilcullen facility.

What can be recycled:
Plastic drinks bottles, and hard plastic containers, e.g. Fabric Conditioner bottles

Then, lighter plastics, as long as it is perfectly clear, and not coloured, e.g. the clear packaging used in toiletry sets.

yop

Thanks Prospect, so cleared plastics can be.

what about plastic bags, the plastic around packets of toilet rolls and that?

cormie

in Ballyogan there is a container for plastic packaging and then another for plastic cartons (which I assume is milk cartons etc).

Can I ask what you actually do with your rasher packs when finished, do you wash them out? Do you wash the cheese wrappers or do you just throw them all into the bin? We personally wouldn't wash the likes of a rasher/sausage pack but would of a yogurt and anything else we put into the recycle sack. We put the plastics from sausages etc into the normal bin. I wonder what the best thing to do it?

Can I also ask you, what do you do with the non recyclable waste you create? With recycling/composting ours is pretty low too, would be nice not to have to pay for bin collections at all.

Alun

There's a clear internationally agreed labelling scheme for recyclable plastics .. you can find them on most plastic packaging. They're little triangular symbols with a number in the middle, see http://americanplasticscouncil.org/s_apc/sec.asp?TRACKID=&CID=313&DID=931.

Now why recycling centres and waste operators don't simply refer to these rather than all these ambiguous descriptions, and just state which types (numbers) can be recycled and which can't, is a mystery to me. I once asked Greenstar exactly that, and they looked at me as if I had just landed on earth from another planet.

Now, not every piece of packaging has such a symbol, so it's not universal, but it's a start.

mukki

Alun wrote:

There's a clear internationally agreed labelling scheme for recyclable plastics .. you can find them on most plastic packaging. They're little triangular symbols with a number in the middle, see http://americanplasticscouncil.org/s_apc/sec.asp?TRACKID=&CID=313&DID=931.

Now why recycling centres and waste operators don't simply refer to these rather than all these ambiguous descriptions, and just state which types (numbers) can be recycled and which can't, is a mystery to me. I once asked Greenstar exactly that, and they looked at me as if I had just landed on earth from another planet.

Now, not every piece of packaging has such a symbol, so it's not universal, but it's a start.

good post, thanks

blue banana

Alun wrote:

There's a clear internationally agreed labelling scheme for recyclable plastics .. you can find them on most plastic packaging. They're little triangular symbols with a number in the middle,

This is what I always use to determine what goes into the recycling bag and what does not. I have always assumed from this rule that it was not possible to put what I call "soft plastic wrapping" etc into it. I only include "hard plastics"

cormie

Surely something can be done with the non recyclable types besides stick them in a landfill though

hotlips_h

cormie wrote:

Surely something can be done with the non recyclable types besides stick them in a landfill though

It seems there's nothing at all you can do with type no. 7, in Ireland anyway.
This article here describes all 7 types and is quite interesting:
http://www.wasteonline.org.uk/resources/InformationSheets/Plastics.htm

I think the Dublin recycling centres only take 1,2 and 4. At least that what DLRCoCo and Fingal say on their websites.

cormie

I don't often read massive pages like that when I'm linked to them (short attention span and busy at the mo:o ) but I did happen to spot this line:

There are about 50 different groups of plastics, with hundreds of different varieties. All types of plastic are recyclable.

It's a wonder why they don't accept all types so

RangeR

cormie wrote:

I don't often read massive pages like that when I'm linked to them (short attention span and busy at the mo:o ) but I did happen to spot this line:



It's a wonder why they don't accept all types so

Economics. If it costs them more to recylcle a plaxtic than to sell on the recycled end product, they won't do it.

2 stroke

I'm not an expert on this but I am concerned at items like meat wrappers being disposed of in the recycling container. Are you just being cheap instead of caring for the enviroment. Items like this can cause entire loads of recyclables to be rejected and sent to landfill or for further sterilising. Some items are only fit for landfill or thermal recovery. Please keep the recyclables clean you might have to eat off them again yourself.
Regards why centers may not cater for all recyclables, economics is probably the main issue. but there are other reasons including their right to refuse certain materials that they might find it difficult to get rid of themselves.

Sarsfield

I went to my local recycling centre today. Some of what I brought was plastic trays from ready-meals & fruit. All Type 1 (PET, PETE). The man at the center told me to put it in with the plastic bottles. Only when leaving the centre did I see a sign saying no 'containers' such as yoghurt etc.

Bloody confusing. I still don't know if I was right or wrong to put the trays in the plastics bin. I've fired off a query to the Dublinwaste website.

Do-more

As has been pointed out before, it's all down to economics.

Recycled PET (Primarily drinks bottles) is used to make the hollow fibre filling for duvets and quilts and so finds a ready market.

You can imagine that a plastic shopping bag that only costs 2-3cent to produce from virgin plastic, could never be economically recycled. The cost of labour to segragate and transport the waste material is higher than this.

That is not to say that these should then be sent to landfill. The problem is that investment has not been put in place for other forms of re-use.

Some are used for those horrible black garden garden products, but as they are not very appealing to the eye sales of these products cannot absorb the amount of waste produced.

As plastics have a very high petroleum content many would argue that the best way to re-use this material is in firing electricity generation. However the public perception of this as "incineration" seems to preclude it in this country.

Thus it seems that in the medium term we are stuck with sending the bulk of plastic waste to landfill....

cormie

I suppose I'm ignorant on this and would be included in the public perceiving this as incineration, would it not be extremely damaging to the environment to incinerate it, is that what you mean?

How bad is plastic to the earth anyway? I know I've been digging in gardens and have met plastic bags that must have been there for about 15 years, it's not a nice thing to find amongst the earth and insects, but is it really that bad? I'm sure it is but I don't know for certain.

mike65

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0903/mike65/Dsc01418.jpg

Two lightwieght plastics, one medium weight and one bubble-wrap. Can any of them be recylced?

Mike.

2 stroke

If the plastic content is used to replace oil, peat or coal, and if the necessary scrubbing of emmisions is done in powerstations as is carried out in incineration plants then I see no reason for not burning plastics.
I doubt if any thermal powerstation in Ireland could pass the enviromental emmision tests required to be carried out by incineration plants.

prospect

The problem here is that, even though some plastics are recycable, not all facilites are capable of recycling them!

Whic leads me to a minor rant:
I was at the kilcullen facility on saturday morning and was dumping my non-recyclable waste. A guy pulls up beside me in a big van, and starts unloading large cardboard boxes packed full of ripped up christmas wrapping paper.
Anyone who visits this facility will know that there is a cardboard and paper collection point only yards away, and they are free. Yet this guy was willing to pay for the convenience of just fecking the whole lot out in one foul swoop. That is just not right.

Sarsfield

Sarsfield wrote:

Bloody confusing. I still don't know if I was right or wrong to put the trays in the plastics bin. I've fired off a query to the Dublinwaste website.

I got a reply from Dublinwaste

Dear Sarsfield,

Thank you for emailing Dublin Waste.

You can recycle plastics with the codes 1, 2 and 4. Please click on the
following link for information on plastic recycling.
http://www.dublinwaste.ie/files/plastics%20Recycling.pdf

If you require any further information please do not hesitate to contact us.

Regards, etc.

So there you go - types 1, 2 and 4 only.

prospect

Sarsfield wrote:

I got a reply from Dublinwaste



So there you go - types 1, 2 and 4 only.

Well done, cheers.

But the question remains, does this apply to all recycling centres in Ireland?

Alun

prospect wrote:

But the question remains, does this apply to all recycling centres in Ireland?

Well, finally, I've managed to get out of Greenstar that they only accept types 1 and 2, although I swear I once saw a leaflet saying they also accepted type 4, but I can't find that now.

Sarsfield

I've had a look at all the plastic containers around the kitchen & bathroom and they're mostly 1's & 2's. Bur found a few 5's and the container with my Ariel liquitabs is 5&6. All destined for the black bin and a big hole in the ground. It does seem like a terrible waste