Vocal Voices

Reports say that a new bill is to be introduced banning single use plastic cups, cutlery, plates and so on. The government is also looking at imposing deposits on plastic bottles and also a plastic packaging tax.

Better late than never, I suppose, but go further.

However, why tax US for packaging we never wanted or asked for? We do not need cauliflowers or bananas in plastic bag or cabbages wrapped in heavy duty clingfilm - just get rid of it all. And while they are at it make all plastic used recyclable. The number of things on the shelves where the recycle icon is blacked out with the legend 'not currently recycled' is criminal.

We will recycle if we are given the chance. The local Asda has a recycling area for glass. paper, clothes and shoes, small electrical items and plastic bottles, and the different containers are regularly emptied - they get full pretty quickly - and there are bins by the door for batteries. The public are ahead of the game on this, unfortunately in many places the infrastructure is not there.

The public are ahead of the game on this, unfortunately in many places the infrastructure is not there.

Yes. We used to have recycling bins on the community centre car park but they were removed a couple of years ago and haven’t been replaced. The clothes bin was moved to the Co Op car park but that’s it. As for ‘soft’ plastics the Co Op have a nationwide scheme to collect those.
https://www.coop.co.uk/environment/soft-plastics?gclid=Cj0KCQjwvaeJBhCvARIsABgTDM4S22atBF4VEuYVnlMOtfMcG38WEcV3izaTdi5TvLoyDESSEZsBRLAaAjyZEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

This list is what we can recycle at the one down on the main road:
Baby, pet food, detergent and cleaning pouches
Biscuits and chocolate wrapping
Bread bags
Bubble wrap and cling film
Cereal liners
Cheese, fish and meat wrapping
Crisp and sweet bags
Delivery bags
Frozen food bags
Multi-pack wrapping
Plastic carrier bags
Plastic film lids
Salad, pasta, and rice bags
Toilet roll wrapping.

Superdrug pharmacies will take the plastic and foil tablet blister packs for recycling, a good start but more places need to do that as not everyone has a nearby Superdrug.

Our council will take small electrical items (as long as they fit into a carrier bag) and batteries for recycling if left out at the side of the household waste bin.

Thats fine as long as you have transport to take it
Can hard ask a taxi to stop
Or carry on a bus
It just confuse it all these things in different bins and stuff I think

There was a time when we could put the soft plastics in the main recycling bin here, plus things like wrapping paper too, but now we’re down to a bare minimum of things which the council will take.

We’ve got a Co Op a couple of minutes walk away so that’s convenient for recycling the plastics but they’re not everywhere are they. I think ai read that Tesco are starting to have in store recycling for the same things too.
Our nearest Superdrug is nearly 10 miles away so I save the tablet packs to take when I’m going there but it’s a matter of remembering to do so. Not sure why that’s not more widespread. Surely a recycling box in each chemist would be possible.

I didn't even know you could recycle tablet blister packs, and I've never seen any reference to it in either of our local pharmacies.

There are used battery boxes in most of our local supermarkets, but to dispose of small electrical items - for example, we have 2 redundant battery smoke alarms currently in the garage awaiting disposal - we have no alternative but to take them the local council tip in Shaftesbury, which is a pain. So they'll sit in the garage until I have a worthwhile load to take up there.

At our local Asda there are two bins for plastic bags. I save small ones including the plastic covers off tubs, packets of rice and similar containers in a large
plastic bag. Go about once a month to dispose of the big plastic bag. Although it is only a small opening I manage to push the big bag in.
It is surprising how much I collect in a month.

I put my tablet blister packs in the recycling, I am guessing I shouldnt be? So they will have to go in the black bin then as I am not paying to park to go into town purely to drop them to Superdrug.

I am sure I put loads of stuff I shouldnt in there, if its plastic, tin or cardboard it goes in.

What about window envelopes what should I do with them, at the moment I put them in the recycling

Although yesterday I put a load of garden rubbish in the black blue lidded bin instead of the brown bin. I fished out as much as I could.

I'm like you MM do my best but council change what you put in the bins
I just hope f or the best in my confuse state