recycle ?

[islandgun]

was  in the coop car park as the bottles were being recycled, made me smile when all the bottles so carefully placed in the green brown and clear containers. were all emptied into the same container and driven away

[TIGHTCHOKE]

Yes unfortunately that is quite common.

The usual "reason" is that the glass is efectively worth nothing and they are just carting it away, I have even heard that it often goes to landfill!

[Saltings]

24 minutes ago, TIGHTCHOKE said:

Yes unfortunately that is quite common.

The usual "reason" is that the glass is efectively worth nothing and they are just carting it away, I have even heard that it often goes to landfill!

plastic and food waste in green and blue bins end up the same or exported ,  brown bins converted into fertiliser and sold back to public its all about the £

[Vince Green]

4 hours ago, islandgun said:

was  in the coop car park as the bottles were being recycled, made me smile when all the bottles so carefully placed in the green brown and clear containers. were all emptied into the same container and driven away

And then they are dumped most likely. There is no way glass can be commercially recycled. At best it gets ground up and used as aggregate in building blocks but those companies can't take all the glass by a long stretch  

Recycling is largely a myth, all attempts to make it cost effective have failed

[mel b3]

3 hours ago, islandgun said:

was  in the coop car park as the bottles were being recycled, made me smile when all the bottles so carefully placed in the green brown and clear containers. were all emptied into the same container and driven away

I can only speak for the local authority that I work for.

Different colours of glass used to attract higher or lower prices , and was recycled in different ways , and often at different plants . Things have changed now , and the glass that we collect,  gets mixed together to be recycled.  Your lot were (probably) just using old containers , rather than spending cash on new ones.

3 hours ago, TIGHTCHOKE said:

Yes unfortunately that is quite common.

The usual "reason" is that the glass is efectively worth nothing and they are just carting it away, I have even heard that it often goes to landfill!

According to information that was being shared in a meeting last week , glass is worth very little at the moment,  but it's very unlikely to go to landfill for two reasons, one reason is cost , landfill is very expensive , so even if the glass is being given away for free, it's still better than picking up the bill for landfill, the other reason is recycling figures, if it goes to landfill, it can't be counted as recycling against local authority recycling figures. The pen pushers and bean counters would have a raving blue fit. Having said that, a small amount may find its way to landfill , due to being contaminated etc , some glass was also being used as hardcore in road construction a while ago(I don't know if they still do that), and I'd guess that it might also have other uses rather than just being turned back into bottles etc.

3 hours ago, Saltings said:

plastic and food waste in green and blue bins end up the same or exported ,  brown bins converted into fertiliser and sold back to public its all about the £

Again ,according to information from a meeting last week. 

Some plastics are still a problem to recycle , iirc , it's something to do with plastic bottles, and their lids being made from a different plastic.

The local authority that I work for , still doesn't separate food waste , but their is talk that they will need to start doing it , just the cost of changing the vehicles to something capable of carrying food waste is frighteningly expensive,  so they might do it as the current fleet of vehicles come to the end of their working life. Just the cost of giving every household a new food waste bin is massive. 

The local authority where I live , does recycle food waste , it's turned into fertiliser and sold , they certainly won't make any profit from it, but at least it will offset some of the collection cost.

According to it , the only thing that's really worth collecting now is paper .

[TIGHTCHOKE]

15 minutes ago, mel b3 said:

I can only speak for the local authority that I work for.

Different colours of glass used to attract higher or lower prices , and was recycled in different ways , and often at different plants . Things have changed now , and the glass that we collect,  gets mixed together to be recycled.  Your lot were (probably) just using old containers , rather than spending cash on new ones.

According to information that was being shared in a meeting last week , glass is worth very little at the moment,  but it's very unlikely to go to landfill for two reasons, one reason is cost , landfill is very expensive , so even if the glass is being given away for free, it's still better than picking up the bill for landfill, the other reason is recycling figures, if it goes to landfill, it can't be counted as recycling against local authority recycling figures. The pen pushers and bean counters would have a raving blue fit. Having said that, a small amount may find its way to landfill , due to being contaminated etc , some glass was also being used as hardcore in road construction a while ago(I don't know if they still do that), and I'd guess that it might also have other uses rather than just being turned back into bottles etc.

Again ,according to information from a meeting last week. 

Some plastics are still a problem to recycle , iirc , it's something to do with plastic bottles, and their lids being made from a different plastic.

The local authority that I work for , still doesn't separate food waste , but their is talk that they will need to start doing it , just the cost of changing the vehicles to something capable of carrying food waste is frighteningly expensive,  so they might do it as the current fleet of vehicles come to the end of their working life. Just the cost of giving every household a new food waste bin is massive. 

The local authority where I live , does recycle food waste , it's turned into fertiliser and sold , they certainly won't make any profit from it, but at least it will offset some of the collection cost.

According to it , the only thing that's really worth collecting now is paper .

Your comments about the glass are noted, my experience is historical. I too remember crushed glass being added to Tarmac.

Plastics that have been died black are still widely un-recyclable due to the sensors being unable to determine what type it is. Need to stop dieing it or invent better sensors.

We've had "Harry's" litte waste food bins for composting for years now, Peterborough is very forward thinking in some ways! I doubt many people use them as much as they could and correctly.It is supposedly turned in to compost for the gardens but I have never seen it for sale so presume it is on a large scale and sold on to a commercial outlet.

Paper was always collected in my youth when it payed for the running of the school swimming pool! Good to see its price has risen to make it viable again.

[mel b3]

53 minutes ago, TIGHTCHOKE said:

Your comments about the glass are noted, my experience is historical. I too remember crushed glass being added to Tarmac.

Plastics that have been died black are still widely un-recyclable due to the sensors being unable to determine what type it is. Need to stop dieing it or invent better sensors.

We've had "Harry's" litte waste food bins for composting for years now, Peterborough is very forward thinking in some ways! I doubt many people use them as much as they could and correctly.It is supposedly turned in to compost for the gardens but I have never seen it for sale so presume it is on a large scale and sold on to a commercial outlet.

Paper was always collected in my youth when it payed for the running of the school swimming pool! Good to see its price has risen to make it viable again.

Morning dave.

I vaguely remember someone saying about sensors on machinery , it may well have been you that mentioned it. I took a dozen or so plastic kayaks to the recycling plant a couple of years ago , one of the guys there cut a piece of plastic out of a kayak and burned it with his lighter , he then had a good sniff of the smoke to decide what type of plastic it was , and if it could be recycled lol, I'm guessing that method of testing really can't be good for you lol. I was speaking to a police officer some time ago about how many plastic wheelie bins get stolen , he told me that the kids had been stealing them to burn , so that they can get stoned on the fumes😲,it makes glue sniffing seem quite glamorous lol.

I've seen the guy collecting food waste in my local area(he don't get anything from my house because I leave naff all on any plate😆) , he pushes a four wheeled bin around and empties the slops buckets into it , he really doesn't have the stomach for it because I've seen him heaving his guts up in the street lol.

The green waste that I collect goes to a garden centre(and from neighbouring boroughs), some is bagged up and goes on sale to the public , but much of it gets ploughed into farmers fields . At one time the farmers used to get paid to take it ,but I don't know if this is the case these days, I do know that some farmers won't take it as it's too dirty(contaminated with all sorts of refuse).

They did quote paper prices in the meeting last week,  but I can't remember how much they're getting for it , I don't think they get very much for it these days, it's more that the price hasn't plummeted as much as the other recyclables . I remember it being said that other local authorities that collect Co mingled  waste , are getting pretty much nothing for any of their recyclable waste ,and that they might need to change back to collecting it separately. 

[old man]

FWIW, my personal opinion is that until comestibles etc. are all sold in packaging of the same types that can be readily recycled it's a bit of a lost cause? 

In terms of food waste when does that become a bio hazard?

[mel b3]

2 minutes ago, old man said:

FWIW, my personal opinion is that until comestibles etc. are all sold in packaging of the same types that can be readily recycled it's a bit of a lost cause? 

In terms of food waste when does that become a bio hazard?

I think you've just about nailed it there . Although thousands of tons of materials get recycled, it's a drop in the ocean compared to  how much still get landfill ed or incinerated.  Apparently, plans are in place for waste to become more recyclable over the next few years , and also for companies like amazon etc to be charged for the waste that they produce.  Weve all received tiny items from amazon that turn up in huge boxes.

[ph5172]

I had to follow our waste stream from producer to end state as well as attending a days training on green credentials as part of a post I took up. 

The only thing remotely useful from the day was if you have any halogen bulbs remove them and put led in, they had a little display with 1 led and 1 50w halogen and a preset £0.15p charged per hour. The cost at the end of the day meant I bought 30 led bulbs on the way home and did all mine!!

whilst spending another day following a product (literally) from the manufacturing plant, to a warehouse, to a distributor, to a courier, watching our unpacking and use along with the recycling of the packaging and pallet it was discovered the waste company take all our split waste and tip into 1 lorry. 

The process of us being told each commodity needed splitting was a waste of time and meant we had loads of separate bins. 

After a visit to the recycling plant and a meeting it was agreed the only thing that couldn’t be mixed was glass or general waste. 

The separate bins were only there to meet a quota

we now have a glass recycle. Mixed recycle and a general waste

then there is the cost to tip each bin! 

All the recycled waste is hand sorted, hence no glass or shredded paper and can be bagged in clear bags (not black as they can’t see the contents) it’s then bundled by commodity for distribution to other processors (they wouldn’t say if they were paid or they paid for this) 

[Vince Green]

A few observations from my Borough

1) its the cost of hand sorting out the waste at the depot, and the time it takes, that is the killer. They could never do it all

2) a big company set up with a lot of public money to recycle plastic went bust a couple of years ago leaving no replacement. 

3) a lot of waste is contaminated

4) To satisfy EU recycling quotas a truck only has to drive in the depot and it can be classed as recycled. Even if just gets turned away again  the EU box is still ticked.

[mel b3]

5 minutes ago, Vince Green said:

A few observations from my Borough

1) its the cost of hand sorting out the waste at the depot, and the time it takes, that is the killer. They could never do it all

2) a big company set up with a lot of public money to recycle plastic went bust a couple of years ago leaving no replacement. 

3) a lot of waste is contaminated

4) To satisfy EU recycling quotas a truck only has to drive in the depot and it can be classed as recycled. Even if just gets turned away again  the EU box is still ticked.

I watched a TV programme a few years back , it showed how one of the London boroughs were recycling all of their domestic waste. The waste was tipped onto a conveyor belt , and a massive team of workers sorted it out as it passed in front of them ,it looked like an awful job ,and I'm guessing that it might have helped to recover some of the collection costs at the time(when the recycled waste had a higher value), but I reckon the costs would be crippling these days. 

I can't vouch for other councils , but we had some green waste that was contaminated with needles around six weeks ago , the bosses were screaming as two artics full of green waste had to be sent to a specialist landfill site(it couldn't go into the local landfill site due to the type of contamination ), the cost was massive, and the weight couldn't be counted against the recycling figures.

I'm not sure if it's still happening now , but several years ago, the Germans were digging waste out of old landfill sites so they had something to burn in incinerator plants , their recycling efforts had been so successful that they didn't have enough burnable waste to keep the incinerator plants going.

[old man]

Rather than dig out old tips, would it be ungentlmanly of me to propose they use the furnishings from defunct EU buildings?😉

[Ricko]

About 40 years ago my aunt and uncle brought me a jar of Nutella back from France. It had a plastic push fit lid and was made of slightly thicker glass. When it was finished it was washed out and served as a glass tumbler for years. I always thought that this was a good idea.

 

I've never understood why jam etc isn't sold in a standardised jar that can be returned and reused a bit like milk bottles. Newcastle brown ale bottles used to have a 10p return on them so they could be reused.

Edited May 26, 2019 by Ricko

[Old farrier]

I suppose we could use all the convicts and anyone doing community service to sort the rubbish 

even use the unemployed making them earn their benefits 

naa that wouldn’t work it’s just to simple 🙄

[islandgun]

2 minutes ago, Ricko said:

About 40 years ago my aunt and uncle bringing me a jar of Nutella back from France. It had a plastic push fit lid and was made of slightly thicker glass. When it was finished it was washed out and served as a glass tumbler for years. I always thought that this was a good idea.

 

I've never understood why jam etc isn't sold in a standardised jar that can be returned and reused a bit like milk bottles. Newcastle brown ale bottles used to have a 10p return on them so they could be reused.

We were buying Nutella in glass tumblers just a few years ago in the local coop, your right an excellent idea, with many possibilities 

 

 

[panoma1]

29 minutes ago, Ricko said:

About 40 years ago my aunt and uncle bringing me a jar of Nutella back from France. It had a plastic push fit lid and was made of slightly thicker glass. When it was finished it was washed out and served as a glass tumbler for years. I always thought that this was a good idea.

 

I've never understood why jam etc isn't sold in a standardised jar that can be returned and reused a bit like milk bottles. Newcastle brown ale bottles used to have a 10p return on them so they could be reused.

Because selling their own things and generating profit, is the intention of manufacturers, and getting the tax/duty is the governments interest...…….not recycling/saving the planet!

They reap the rewards.....the public (us!) pay firstly for the item/commodity, secondly the tax/duty levied.....then thirdly to clean up the planet!

[fern01]

The main problem for companies that collect re-cycled materials is that a large proportion is contaminated in some way.

It costs them so much to remove this they just can't afford to pay for it.

Our local council re-cycling facility has a full time person checking every bit of cardboard before it is put in the baling machine

 

 

[TIGHTCHOKE]

40 minutes ago, Old farrier said:

I suppose we could use all the convicts and anyone doing community service to sort the rubbish 

even use the unemployed making them earn their benefits 

naa that wouldn’t work it’s just to simple 🙄

Oh how demeaning, what about their "human rights" man?

[amateur]

3 minutes ago, fern01 said:

The main problem for companies that collect re-cycled materials is that a large proportion is contaminated in some way......

In the days when I was involved in the paper industry, we used to have a problem with feral cats living among the waste paper piles. 

Cat hairs in the paper mills would shred the paper as it went over the rollers.

They were a real problem to keep control of.

Not to mention the odd one ending up in the pulper - not too much of a problem if we were making the pink paper for the FT though.

[Andy H]

A lot of glass is recycled into glass wool that in used for insulation in your roofing and new builds, factory wall insulation etc , It cannot be recycled into glass containers that will be used for food and drinks as they do not know what was stored in  the original glass bottles/containers ie Toxic chemicals and compounds that could survive the remelting process.

[Old farrier]

28 minutes ago, TIGHTCHOKE said:

Oh how demeaning, what about their "human rights" man?

Naa I think we have the wright to expect a criminal to pay there dept to society and think how good they will feel about saving the planet 

its called rehabilitation 

[NatureBoy]

A local farm to me in Suffolk uses and spread hundreds of tons of "recycled composted"" garden waste on his fields. Has been doing it for years. We were looking at a load of the same stuff that had been delivered to another farm where i shoot the other day. In no time 3 of us picked hand fulls of just the various clearly visible shredded plastics off the pile. We were amazed at the amount and that this stuff gets supplied by county waste handlers.  The amount of micro plastics in that  stuff must be huge! And we bother and worry about the amount of litter plastic wads and carts cause! Another thing that amazed us was the amount of heat there was in the recently delivered small heap of about 10 tons. Farmer not going to use it or have any more and look in to it!   NB

[oowee]

All this stuff is a commodity the bigger the supply the lower the price. Early in recycling there was good money to be had for news papers and the like. I even remember my scout group collecting it. The same is true for all recyclates. If there was more work to increase the demand for product then more stuff might be easier and cost effective to recycle. 

[Andy H]

Remember   China until jan 2018 was buying most of the recyclable  solid wastes in the world  until the chinese govt  banned it , Now  who will pay for it.