What EXACTLY are we supposed to recycle. e.g. Paper. envelopes? No. cardboard? No. - same applies to plastics.

Question

What kind of plastic can be recycled. I understand not all can be recycled. where is it clearly spelled out

Answer 1

it shoud say on the packaging if can be recycled, our council issued a flyer telling us what you can or can`t, get in touch with your`s.

Answer 2

yes u can recycle any type of paper as long as they AREN'T:  

food stained eg. milk cartons, pizza boxes (those u can compost)

toilet paper, paper towels, napkins, kleenex

laminated paper

for plastics the ones i do know for sure your council will take is plastic with the #1 and 2 on it.  u could look for these around your container but look closely since the numbers are translucent.  I suggest u look online for u recycling council if they accept other forms of plastic.

Answer 3

Each recycling plant will recycle only certain kinds of plastic.  If you look at your plastic pieces, they will all have numbers on them.  The number refers to what type of plastic it is.  Look at this number and compare it to what each plant recycles.

Answer 4

As stated by most respondents, it depends on who is recycling. What your council will take etc.

In theory most domestic refuse has further uses. In some places its used to make compost on a grand scale. In others the individual components are reused or recycled. In some a lot is chucked into a furnace to generate heat to produce electricity.

The technology for recycling is expanding and changing all the time. For instance there are now processes that can handle all types of plastic. It gets shredded washed and separated into different types automatically, each type reused as best suited and the left overs go into a kind of much that is suitable for making packing pallets from.

Worms do a good job of recycling all sorts of organic waste including soiled paper—start a worm farm.

If you are not satisfied with what your council does in the recycling area, start attending council meetings and puttingyour point of view. That is what those meetings are for. Be an agitator.

Answer 5

There should be a symbol on each plastic item (certainly milk 'bottles' shampoo etc.)  Then, where you recycle should clearly show which type of plastic they accept.  You're right though, it's not very clear and it doesn't make it easy to try to do the right thing by recycling.  Hopefully labelling will change to make it easier.

Answer 6

If there is a special container for it, then put it in, if it says PLASTIC then put any plastic in, the authorities will sort out which is/is not suitable, same goes for metal and glass.

Answer 7

At the risk of ranting for several hours ... It seems its different for different Councils.

While some friends I know can have a brown, green and black bin and can recycle nearly everything via council pickup ... We on the other end of the scale can only recycle basically Grass-cuttings ... "Card-board" etc. has been classified "Sub-standard" for composting (sure that isn't the only way to recycle it but hey, what do I know). Plastic does'nt get collected (also drives me mad as most packaging is Plastic). Glass can be collected ... Wow ... nearly fell over then I bet !

Drives me mad, little point in all this if the Council doesn't help by providing a service (which we already pay through the nose for). We have to take all other things to the local recycling place, the temptation being to say sod it, put all the rubbish in black bags and throw in general refuse.

Answer 8

This varies from one Local Authority to another, because they sign up to different services provided by commercial organisations.

This also means that most recycled waste enters an international re-use market, and ends up being shipped thousands of miles for processing in the most 'advantageous' labour economy.

(Meaning, the cheapest and least regulated place to exploit poor people as workers with hazardous and unpleasant materials)

It might be possible to set up your own network, if you know a local use for some of the recyclable materials that the council doesn't collect, but it's unlikely that it would be economically viable in the long term.