Recycling

[TRUCKER]

I See That The Recycling Centres In Wick/thurso Will Be Accepting Plastic Bottles Etc.

[ashaw1]

Not before time! I think most of the contents of my bin put out every week is plastic.

[changilass]

Now we just need to convince them to give us another collection box so that everyone can join in, not just those of us that have the means to get to the recycle centres.

There is alus one that wants more no matter how much they offer, its me this time lol.

[Bill Fernie]

The plastics recycling is test at certain centres. There has been a great demand for recycling plastics but it may not work out in practice. This experiment should allow the council to find out exactly what is involved and the costs.

Plastics are not all the same and that is the problem. Can they be dealt with by separation etc and all of that is costly if it has to be sorted manually.

Also recycling neds to be cost effective. It is not really about getting one householders items recycled. It is about stpping huge tonage going to landfill. It will only work if the council can save paying the landfill tax. It may for some householders still be cheaper for the council to bury it. Obviously Highland council like other councils is trying to increase the volumes being recycled as they have a gun at their heads in the name of fast increasing landfill tax. If we cannot get more recycled then all council tax payers will see their bills rise to pay what is in effect a fine for evey ton put to landfill. Over the next few years the landfill tax is set by national government to rise by significant amounts.

Plastic is generally light compared to its volume and so may take too many trips using diesel etc to move it. So although it takes up space it is not heavy compared to the volume of other materials. Dealing with it may not be easy.

We have been collecting all our plastic bottles in the garage since I knew this was going to be coming in. I hope it starts soon as we now have an amazing amount of plastic bottles from milk, shampoo to many other containers. It really is staggering how many we have accumulated in black bin bags in just a few months. As soon as it opens I will pack the car with them although it might take more than one trip. Even though we have crushed a few most of it is air.

Let's hope it all works and the plastic can find a use as if not it will revert to landfill with the general rubbish.

Incineration is being considered in some places but they will need to deal wtih the gases and other pollutants that would put out.

[joxville]

I worked in the plastics industry for a couple of years and in that time we only used about 5%-10% recycled plastic. The major problem was getting supplies of it! When you consider how much plastic plays a part in our everyday lives it's hard to believe used supplies would be difficult to come by. Just look around you, go into any room, car or office and you'll see we are surrounded by the stuff. A tremendous amount of plastic still goes to landfill because council's are not doing enough to encourage recycling.

Down here in Hampshire we have 2 wheely bins-one for normal rubbish and one for recycling. The recycle bin only get's collected fortnightly so when you've run out of space then it goes into the normal bin. They won't give us a second bin for recycling because it takes the bin men longer to do their rounds. They won't change to doing it weekly and normal rubbish fortnightly so again, the recycle goes to landfill.

We are also to blame because we want cheaper food & drink and the manufacturer's and supermarket's make more profit and fewer journeys transporting plastic packaging. However it's unfair of the Government and Council's to encourage us to recycle more when they are not doing enough themselves.

I now work for an asphalt manufacturer and the recycled roads material that we use has recently been cut back to 10%, this is part of an agreement with the E.U. and all member states. There is absolutely no reason for us not to use up to 85% recycle-most of the roads in America are done that way. Car tyres can be chopped up and used in play parks or lightly trafficked area's. Glass can also be used,(but isn't), and it would be good at night time because the particles shine out, thereby making the roads safer still, especially country roads.

So as much as everyone can play a part in recycling, we need the Government to do more too.

http://www.wrap.org.uk/manufacturing/info_by_material/plastic/index.html