Plastic bottles

Dr.Gonzo · 17-08-2007 02:49AM #1

I realise this may already be old news, but in the Dublin area the corporation are dispatching pamphlets saying plastic bottles and containers can now be placed in your green bins.
Not exactly deal of the century, but it's a step towards convenience on our part.
I'm fairly chuffed with that.
My dad's pissed off going back and forth to the "special plastic place" as he calls it and getting harranged by fiends in flourescent jackets.

Does anybody know if this new little titbit applies to all plastic or just bottles???

cuppa · 17-08-2007 03:50AM

well plastic is plastic,,,just hope the collet them more often ,,,i fill the grren bin in a week without plastic

Dr.Gonzo · 17-08-2007 12:42PM

I have the pamphlet here.
No it just says plastic bottles ie. coke, milk water, etc.
They don't take the other containers or other bits of plastic.
That's a bit mad.
What difference does it make?

Archeron · 17-08-2007 01:23PM

AFAIK there are hundreds of different types of plastic used for making various stuff, and only a handful are currently recyclable. I think the plastic bottles are of the recyclable type, where a lot of other products are not. (this is what I was told when I worked in a recycling company anyway).

Furze · 19-08-2007 06:28PM

Is this separation of recyclables a nonsense - read that most of it ends up in landfill anyway !
I see nothing on Oxigens website on new rules. Surely if the plastic has the
recyclable symbol, then it can go in ?
Next thing they'll introduce is fines

Húrin · 20-08-2007 12:59AM

cuppa wrote:

well plastic is plastic,,,just hope the collet them more often ,,,i fill the grren bin in a week without plastic

No, plastic is not simply plastic. There are dozens of different types in common use for packaging. The facilities for kerbside collection are limited to only a small number of them now.

Furze wrote:

Is this separation of recyclables a nonsense - read that most of it ends up in landfill anyway !
I see nothing on Oxigens website on new rules. Surely if the plastic has the
recyclable symbol, then it can go in ?

Again, many different types of plastic exist, but they can't all be melted down and recycled together. That's why they must be separated.

Don't believe everything you read. Recycling is real.

Del2005 · 20-08-2007 04:51AM

There is a number in the middle of the recycleing symbol on plastics. Check what number is on the plastic bottles and any plastic with the same number can be recycled.

Wishbone Ash · 20-08-2007 08:08AM

Furze wrote:

Surely if the plastic has the
recyclable symbol, then it can go in ?

Almost all products are recyclable somewhere but your local authority or their contractors/agents may not have the facilities to recycle everything.

BendiBus · 20-08-2007 12:33PM

The problem is that some plastic containers are made of composites of a number of different plastics. This makes them unrecyclable as far as I know. The usual example is yoghurt pots. To reduce the amound ot non-recyclable plastic going in green bins the 'plastic bottles' guide is used.

However afaik, plastic types 1,2 & 4 are acceptable, regardless of whether it's bottle shaped or plastic tray shaped.

Alun · 21-08-2007 12:16PM

BendiBus wrote:

However afaik, plastic types 1,2 & 4 are acceptable, regardless of whether it's bottle shaped or plastic tray shaped.

You can't make generalizations like that .. it depends entirely on who's making the collections. In our case, it's Greenstar who only accept types 1 & 2.

The one I'm particularly interested in is type 5 (PP) which, if I could recycle that, would make a huge difference.

Grudaire · 21-08-2007 02:16PM

Furze wrote:

Is this separation of recyclables a nonsense - read that most of it ends up in landfill anyway !

I thought the reason was that since only some stuff can be recycled, If they try and melt it all down together the material will be polluted/dilluted, thus ruining the whole batch. The key is to seperate, and then it will all be recycled.

Plastic bottles

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