Monday, August 31, 2009

Does ALL your recycling really get recycled?

Did you know that even if you place your recycling into a biodegradable plastic bag & then through it into your recycle big it may not all get recycled at all?????
Well it's true!

WHY?
Well there are 2 reasons:

The first reason is that all the rubbish goes onto a conveyor belt & the staff at the recycling plant pick through the rubbish taking out anything that isn't recyclable. When a bag goes past that they can't see what is on the inside it gets pulled off the conveyor belt & placed into the normal rubbish pile.

And the second reason is that the bags get pulled off the conveyor belt is that the plastic bags get court up in the machinery & cause it to malfunction & break down cost time & money.

SOLUTION!

Well there is an easy way to solve this. Collect your recycling as normal & if you do use a plastic bag to hold it in, just empty the contents in your recycle bin so that it is all loose material.

I'd love to hear what others thoughts are on this?

10 comments:

  1. Thank you.
    I dont use plastic bags in my recycle bin but i do for my rubbish bin

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  2. Hi Chloe,
    I was really surprised when i found this out on the Eco channel myself, so i thought best to inform as many others as possible.
    Thank you so much for your comment.
    Sandy

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  3. Good point. You should also know that a lot of stuff that should be recycled isn't because recyclers don’t have a market for the items. If you get a chance go to a recycling center and take a tour…you’ll be surprised at how much stuff gets tossed. If we’re going to reduce the amount of trash that goes into our landfills and better use our scarce resources, we need to do a better job of recycling. Many countries do a much better job of recycling their waste. I even heard of a country that dismantles old tennis shoes recycling the leather, rubber, and metal. Recycling at that level would create more jobs.
    Most things are ending up in a landfill so we thought it might be a good idea if some of those things were more biodegradable. We developed a biodegradable plastic bottle that will biodegrade in a microbial environment. The ENSO biodegradable plastic bottles will biodegrade leaving behind biogases and humus.
    Max
    http://www.ensobottles.com
    “Bottles for a Healthier Earth”

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  4. VERY true Max! I totally agree we need to buy in bulk or buy items which dont have so much wrapping. eg...a box of cans! or a packet of individual slices of cheese or chocolate. How lazy are we all getting that we can not sllice up a block of cheese to make a sandwich? Imagine all the extra packaging for what? To add to the problem we already have which is RUBBISH!
    Also alot of the plastic bottles out there yes are biodsegradale but have a chemical called BPA which is added in the manufacturing of the the plastic. This chemical is released into the beverage or food that is contained in it. Many illnesses & cancers have now been linked to this chemical & so the Stainless Steel Bottles which have no BPA in them are much better for our health & the environment as they an be melted down or reused so many times.
    Thank you everyone for your comments. Any one else have a comment they would like to add? Please feel free to do so.
    Sandy

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  5. Thank you Sandy for making more people aware of the issue with plastic bags and recylcling. Living in the US I have found that each area has different products that can be recycled. I did learn a while ago that our local company cannot recycle plastic bags. I have insisted that we use brown paper bags to store the recycle in until we take it out to the dumpster and we reuse them a few times. You can also store the recyclables in cardboard boxes (beer etc).
    Our local stores do collect plastic bags and I believe they do recycle them.
    It seems that packaging is getting worse not better here. Small items come in large packages to make them look bigger and I am yet to find a refill for detergent. You have to buy a brand new bottle each time. The only positive is that I can buy triple concentrate and be using less plastic.
    Rebecca
    http://RebeccaDoll.blogspot.com

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  6. Thank you so much for your comments Rebecca.

    I totally agree. That's like cheese slices, how lazy are we that we need to buy these products. Is it really that hard to buuy a block of cheese & slice it for a few sandwiches? REALLY! What is this world coming to that we dont have time to just slice cheese. If you look at the packet of sliced cheeses there isnt much in there. JUST PLASTIC!
    I'm so glad that we sell refillable bottles & also large bottles of 5 Litres. I dont list them as it costs to much to post but for locals am more than happy to sell them the larger bottles. It's saves on money, time, recycling, packaging, petrol & so much more why wouldn't you buy bulk?
    Thanks for your comment & i look forward to more of them.
    Sandy

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  7. Recycling in Noosa is very minimal.
    the household recycle bins only allow plastic/glass bottles and cans. NO PAPER! Can you believe it?Let's all contact the council and ask for paper recycling.
    Evan.

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  8. Evan, you must have been mis informed. The yellow recycle bins in Noosa and the now Sunshine Coast Regional Council have accepted clean paper, cardboard, plus glass, aluminium cans, steel, plastic with recycling sign 1-6 since 2004 and perhaps before. Check out the Council website. Brian

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  9. Great post! When I read your article, I really agree with you about this. I hope you will share more with us. Thank you!
    R.J.

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  10. True Brian the local councils here have increased the amount of different items they now recycle but i think they can do so much more for our $$$$
    Here in the noosa and sunny coast our rates are through the roof yet they spend minimum to do anything for us.
    We now just have a big plastic box that we fill our recycling in and it has to be emptied daily if not more than once a day. We recycle so much and have so much less that goes into our normal bin that i think they need to change their pick up of rubbish!
    Meaning instead of picking up our recycle bins fortnightly it needs to be weekly instead. So many times my normal bin is no where near half full yet my recycle bin is always over flowing if not being forced to put some in the normal bin or store it for another week before it gets collected again.
    I also recycle jars butter and ice cream containers you name it!
    I wash them, remove the labels then store them in boxes lol so if anyone knows of someone that makes jams they can contact me lol
    The other thing i do with many of these sorts of items is i donate them to the local schools as the kids can reuse them to make arts and craft or to hold their crayons etc in them in their classrooms

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