Vocal Voices

Our office location is in the borough of Westminster and my home is in the borough of Guildford. Westminster incinerates its waste whereas Guildford still sends it to landfill. What made me think about where my waste goes was some damaged netting I need to dispose of. The fact that it'll go into landfill here and potentially in decades (maybe even centuries) down the line still be of harm to wildlife really made me think so I decided to keep any plastic out of my waste bin, instead take it to the office whenever I go in and bin it there. And let me tell you, I am quite shocked by just how much plastic waste I still actually end up with; given that I actually though I was fairly plastic savvy.

And yes, incineration does probably have environmental issues, but I honestly think that landfill is worse.

I'll certainly be rethinking my shopping even more

So challenge is on
a) find out what your local borough / council does with its general waste; and
b) keep all plastic you usually bin (not the recyclable stuff) to one side and in a fortnight see just how much (or how little) you end up with.

I think most of us will be rather unpleasantly surprised


I'm lucky in that I have the option of disposing at work, but what of those that don't - surely there must be something else one can do with plastic so it doesn't end up in landfill?

We have a brown wheelie bin for cans, plastic bottles an other containers. This is emptied by the local council very two weeks.

We get large plsatic bags from charities to donate clothes etc. Use them for small plastic bags such as those round brad, and film. It has taken a month
to fill the three bags. Will take them to Asda who have several bins for plastic bags.

Morrisons are now supplying paper bags for fruit and veg.

The Dorset Council website quoteth thus:

Plastic bottles (via the recycling bin) - sent to various companies (several in South Wales) for remoulding into fresh plastic products or used as fuel.
Other plastic (via the household bin) - Tetrapak cartons go to a mill in Stainland, West Yorkshire for recycling into industrial coreboard and plastic film. Other plastic which can't be recycled appears to be incinerated in Wimborne or exported to Europe! Very little (so they say) goes into landfill.

Thinking about it, I don't think as a household we generate a fat lot of non-recyclable plastic waste, Meriad. We get through a lot of tins, though!
I'm ruthless at recycling; we only more or less half-fill one black bin-liner a week with non-recyclable household waste, and that's not all plastic by any stretch.

I do try, but we definitely still have too much plastic waste I have those netting bags for fruit and veg, but it is incredibly difficult to completely avoid it - the supermarkets could definitely do more

Gloucester has recently changed from landfill to a huge incinerator - and there was loads of protest about it!

This is an article about the incinerator, and this is just some of the protest the project faced!

Leeds stopped using landfill with the opening of the Leeds Recycling and Energy Recovery Facility in about 2012. All black bin waste is sent there where some recyclable items are first removed then the waste is incinerated to produce hot water and electricity.

Our green bin rules are fairly relaxed - no food, no glass, no shredded paper and no fabrics (clothes etc.) but most anything else can go in. Sorting is done in sites around the city and anything found to not be recyclable is sent to the aforementioned incinerator where the exhaust is 'scrubbed'.

We also have plenty of household recycling centres and every major supermarket or shopping area has a collection point for glass, paper, clothes and small electrical items.

I have an old pillow case hung on the back of a cupboard door for recyclable stuff and it takes me about two weeks to fill it, just in time for the bin to be collected. My black bin sometimes never gets put out for collection as there is hardly anything in it.

I have to put my black bin out every two weeks regardless of how full or empty it is, because I have cat poop in it But that black bin is usually nearly empty


Kaz, I totally agree with you about the supermarkets. Most of the plastic I end up with is from the fruit / veg section and also meat. A lot of the veg I do buy loose and same as you put into reusable mesh bags, but there is so much that just comes prepackaged - and most of it with non-recyclable plastic. And that's my main gripe, bad enough that there is so much plastic, but so much of it cannot be recycled!

As for the meat, well that is something I can try and remedy by buying from the butcher counter and taking my own containers, and same for some of the cold meats and cheeses - again I just need to get into the habit of carrying my own containers.

I'm obviously on a roll here (or should that be tangent? ) so please feel free to scroll past / ignore

I am looking for somewhere new to recycle crisp packets as the person that I used to take them to no longer is part of the scheme; some of you may find this useful?
https://www.terracycle.com/en-GB/brigades/crisppacket


and also found this
https://www.recyclenow.com/what-to-do-w ... X6EALw_wcB
As Cruiser already said - many supermarkets have special plastic recycling facilities.

meriad wrote:
As for the meat, well that is something I can try and remedy by buying from the butcher counter and taking my own containers, and same for some of the cold meats and cheeses - again I just need to get into the habit of carrying my own containers.

The meat, fish and deli counters are still closed in our Sainsbury's - I was using them before lockdown - so there is no real alternative There is a butcher's in town, but I've never liked the look of their meat

meriad wrote:.... bad enough that there is so much plastic, but so much of it cannot be recycled!

And that is my BIG gripe.

[rant]Food on black trays, sandwich boxes, just about every sweet wrapper you can think of, polystyrene boxes etc., and don't get me started on plastic items that are not clearly marked as being recyclable or not.

The 'Recyclable' and 'Not Recyclable' icons are well known and it should be a legal requirement for them to be moulded in or printed on all plastics. Calling them Type1, Type 2 and so on is meaningless to most people.[/rant]