After recycling all I am left with is PLASTIC junk. This is what goes to landfill. What can we do about this?

Question

With excellent kerbside pickups for recyclable materials, it is easier than ever to dispose sensibly of most waste, BUT each week all that's left in my bin is plastic wrapping, polystyrene food trays, petfood pouches and the like. This goes to landfill sites and is the very stuff that will take forever to rot down. This makes me feel so guilty! Surely some way of recycling this sort of stuff could be sorted out, even if it's used to make carrier bags or more plastic wrapping which can then be recycled and so on ad infin.

Answer 1

I saw an amazing web site on how to turn plastic into high quality Diesel. It has now been made a commercialy viable operation. The units take all types of plastic wrap, bottles, margarine tubes, plastic bags etc and the bigger ones can produce 20 Tonnes of good Diesel a day. 15 as these plants are due (if not already) in UK. Get onto their web site check it out, then get your council interested. These units could run all the buses, council transport etc.

Makes more sense than knocking down forests to grow plants etc for bio-diesel, which has always seemed to be a contradiction of what we are trying to achieve.

Type cynar plc into one of the major search engines and the web site tells you all about the process, quality of fuel how large piece of ground you need to set one of these processing plants up etc.

Answer 2

Well of course in other more advanced countries, all plastics are burnt and used for power generation.(See Mr Ps answer).  What I do is burn everything . Nobody can convince me that burning it is worse than it being in the landfill sites and ultimately disintegrating into small particles which end up in the water supply.

Answer 3

well, contact your govenor. thats what i did.

Answer 4

I am guessing you live in the UK? From a practical viewpoint, buy from a farmers market, or try to avoid anything in plastic - Morrisions are the worst for plastic packaging in fruit and veg. Sainsburys do their organic veg in compostable bags - but usually flown 1/2 way across the world when out of season! At work we have a contract with Biffa waste (they recycle all 6 plastic categories), I put my house waste in their bins although I think its a commercial contract and they don't have residential contracts. But its worth asking them for any leads. Your council is likely to do bottle recycling - and ringing my council they said it was category 1 and 2, so I add food trays that are clearly marked 1PET or 2HDPE  - although there may be issues with this- I don't know! Try to buy only plastics that are 1 or 2. also try this forum

http://www.recycle-more.co.uk/specifics/...

This site says -So why do we only talk about recycling plastic bottles? There are many types of plastic being used, but many of them are blends of different polymer types, not all food tubs are made from the same polymers and if different polymer types are recycled together, they lose their special qualities. For example, if a load of PET was to be recycled with a load of HDPE to create a new blended plastic, it is unlikely that the new material will have the pressure bearing properties of the original PET. The other thing to ask your council is whether they have the tetrapak recycling done yet - all councils were supposed to have this - mine still hasn't!

Answer 5

it doesn't need to "rot down" the area of landfills is minuscule...when full a dump that's caped correctly will not pollute and will be invisible...iv seen many that r made into parks and you would never know ...

Answer 6

There are some places that recycle polystyrene, check to see if there are any in your area.  You can switch from pouch pet food to canned since the cans are recyclable.  If you are crafty there is a series of books called "From Trash to Treasure" but realistically the trash would pile up too fast, unless you make a business out of it lol.  Unfortunately for now there is still going to be lots of waste.

I don't have curbside recycling so I still have to make the extra trip to the recycling center, yet I know people that actually have curbside recycling and they still throw plastic in the trash because it's "more convenient". grr.

Answer 7

the best thing we can do is stop buying as much as possible that is  wrapped in plastic its not easy but we must make the effort to change or we all will be living on top of a tip

Answer 8

there are few places within the UK where plastic can be recycled, emphasising few! it is an increasing problem but local councils and the government don't seem to be doing anything about it, the only thing you can do is see if there is a plastic recycling centre near you or go to your local councellor or just save up all ur plastic and every month or so go to a nearby centre

Answer 9

Stop buying petfood in pouches - get cans & recycle. Many plastics can be recycled, so take those to a recycling center if they are not picked up. You can buy a lot of foods in bulk in recycled/recyclable paper bags at health food stores. Stop feeling guilty & do something about what you are buying!

Answer 10

am also very annoyed about plastic being chucked in landfill.

There are so many good uses for it!

And when you consider that oil is expected to peak in 2012, we could face a future without this extremely useful and versatile material.

Also, because a lot of confusion exists about the need to have only biodegradeable plastic - that is another reason why we should conserve non-biodegradeable plastic

(it is waterproof and very durable / long-lasting - and it is an ideal material to make coatings to help us survive flooding, for example).

To answer your question, we need many more voices making a noise about recycling conscientiously and effectively.

Answer 11

In Germany - they don't use landfill at all. Look to see how they deal with it.

In the right power generation plant, emissions should be no worse than coal.

There is a real danger of plastics that can be recycled, being mixed with the degradable versions - resulting in products that degenerate. This is no use if the new products are textiles or vehicle parts.

Answer 12

I recommend books called 'Cradle to Cradle' it is all about the alternative to the cradle to grave life-cycle of resources and 'From Waste to Resource' 2006 World Waste Survey which so far what I have read, is about waste as a resource.  I am out today with a client, but will have (hopefully) plenty of time to review this properly and will add my findings to this answer.  

I hate the fact that a lot of stuff is wrapped in plastic.  I mean who needs a hard plastic box in the right shape for a cauliflower?  That is what the outer leaves were for, so why did they take them off?  As for carrots, onions etc...  Then there are eggs in Asda in a blown polystyrene egg box with a clingfilm type outer wrapping and on top a ring of thin card to place the advert that says these are the cheapest.  As soon as I can, an old cupboard in the shed is becoming a home with a run for a couple of chickens!  Then not all the left overs will be ate the next day and not all the peelings will be composted.  Thank you for your question I did that add a star thingy.  p.s. I try to take as much of the wrapping as possible off at the check out as I can.

Answer 13

Local councils & governments should be able to help.

I have had a kerbside collection for the past few yrs for recyclable waste & green waste (garden trimmings etc.).....they do not specify yoghurt pots on our bags, but i stick them in there anyway as i feel i should making a point that almost anything can be recycled.

The government usually seem to fuss about costs....but what is money but trees & metal....surely there is more of an impact by removing the trees to make the notes, this decreases the removal of carbon dioxide that the increasing landfills make. I think that the government should start an incentive to make recycling compulsory in every town by providing us with the facilities for collection & the correct training to employ people to fit the jobs.

Check out http://www.globalactionplan.org.uk and other groups such as Friends of the Earth for ideas. They may be able to offer a solution.

I am aware that these items can be recycled but where i am unsure. Sorry....though the end result is interesting:

http://www.create.org.uk.

or

http://www.recyclenow.com

Hope this helps.