Recycling Plastics: The China Connection
Why not become a Fan on Facebook or Follow us on Twitter. Thanks for visiting!
Do you recycle?
Following on from the question, which I received from a reader and posted to the blog a few days back, I have received a few more questions from a couple of other readers who would like our help.
Today’s question comes from Sally.
Hi Ecobloke!
I’m becoming a slightly obsessive recycler. But I get somewhat confused & concerned about some of the information particularly on plastics and don’t want to contaminate plastic recycling bins with the wrong type of plastics. Any quick tips on how to judge what plastics can be recycled. I’ve also heard that all plastics get shipped to China. I’d be interested in a thread about recycling generally to debate some of the quandaries I have about good recycling practise.
Well Sally,
Let’s deal with the ‘plastics’ issue first.
Here is a list of plastics that CAN be recycled and the symbols that their packaging may include.
PET
Polyethylene terephthalate
Fizzy drink bottles and oven-ready meal trays.
HDPE
High-density polyethylene
Bottles for milk and washing-up liquids.
PVC
Polyvinyl chloride
Food trays, cling film, bottles for squash, mineral water and shampoo.
LDPE
Low density polyethylene
Carrier bags and bin liners.
PP
Polypropylene
Margarine tubs, microwaveable meal trays.
PS
Polystyrene
Yoghurt pots, foam meat or fish trays, hamburger boxes and egg cartons, vending cups, plastic cutlery, protective packaging for electronic goods and toys.
OTHER
Any other plastics that do not fall into any of the above categories.
An example is melamine, which is often used in plastic plates and cups.
Even though all the above plastics can be recycled, it is unfortunate that not all Councils in the UK actually offer the service of recycling them.
For example Exeter City Council refuse to recycle PCV and Hampshire County Council don’t recycle Polystyrene. Of course theses are just examples and you would need to check with your local authority in charge of your waste collections what they do and do not recycle.
With regards to sending plastics off to China, in 1998 we sent half a million tonnes of plastic to China for processing. WRAP, a company that advised the Government at the time, say:
“It may seem strange that transporting our unwanted paper and plastic bottles such a distance would actually be better for the environment but that is what the evidence from this study shows.
“As more and more of this material is being sold to China we wanted to know the impact that was having on the environment, and specifically whether the CO2 emissions from the transport outweighed the benefits of the recycling.
“Although this study is only part of the environmental impact story, it is clear that there are significant CO2 savings that can be made by shipping our unwanted paper and plastic to China.
“In some cases, we just aren’t able to reprocess everything we collect or there isn’t enough of it to do so. In these cases, shipping it to China, which has a high demand and need for material, makes sense in CO2 terms.
“WRAP will continue to build both the environmental and economic case for domestic recycling.”
The research I did on this blog post this morning has left me undecided as to whether we ship our plastics to China for environmental or economic reasons.
Maybe its time to put our weight on councils to recycle more? Maybe its time to put our weight on retailers to use less unrecyclable plastics, like good ol’ Waitrose who sell English apples in bags that can not be recycled!
Please use the comments section below to ‘debate some of the quandaries YOU have about good recycling practise’.
Remember that YOU may be able to recycle some of your plastics at home.
Here are a couple of ideas that I have found for you this morning…
If you make any of these, maybe you would be kind enough to share your photos of what you have made with us below. Or maybe you have some craft ideas yourself that you could share that can benefit all?
Related posts:
Thanks ecobloke – I’ve already printed out your blog to pin up near the bin. Didn’t realise that polystyrene could be recycled!
I’m going to email my local council to get information about what plastics they currently can recycle.
1 of my other quandries is whether to rinse/wash out plastics & glass containers – is this a silly thing to do?
Also how much processing of paper & cardboard should you do before recycling – does a small amount of cellotape or metal staples cause issues in the recycling process?
See I told you I was becoming slightly obsessive!
I will look at paper sometime soon.
I’ve managed to answer some of my own questions! My local council doesn’t accept polysterene and recommends cleaning items that have food waste in them.
It did occur to whilst me reading your blog that although I buy loose fruit & veg using the supermarket’s provided veg plastic bags -there is not reason why I couldn’t reuse the same bags each time I shop, something I’ll be doing from now on.
Well-done Sally. I would also say that it is better to wash things out just to save on the stink and not to attract vermin.
I’ve read somewhere recently that we also all need to get into the habit of always choosing products that contain recycled materials. The current major problem restricting the recycling industry is collectively we don’t opt for these products enough.
Phthalates are a topic of debate within the health and safety community. Much research is being carried out about the possible harm caused by these chemicals.take a look at Science Daily website for some of the latest research and findings
Hi there,
I heard something about Phthalates and male infertility. And a friend of mine is very hot on not eating or drinking anything out of plastic containers because of this.
I wonder if Phthalates are contained in the plastics which are used to make the pipes that pipe water to our houses?
One thing I have always wondered about recycyling is does it make money. If not would be better off encouraging the councils to plant trees or do other enviromentally friendly acts. In this context I would include the cost of landfill in the calculations as I presume this is one of the reasons for recycling is saving on landfill. I would be interested on an article on the economic impact of global warming for example one bbc article said: The result, say the insurers, is that in the next decade, the annual cost of global warming will hit $150bn a year – that’s five times the annual earnings of the entire population of Nigeria.
The result, say the insurers, is that in the next decade, the annual cost of global warming will hit $150bn a year – that’s five times the annual earnings of the entire population of Nigeria.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2327795.stm
That is even more than we spent on bailing out the banks!
I understand recycling makes money, usually enough to cover the costs involved and sometimes turns a profit. How much does depend on what the material is and how efficiently the process is managed. I worked until recently for a charity. Textiles that couldn’t be sold in High Street shops were sent to our own recycling facility – these textiles nationally raised a gross income of in excess of £1 million a year, and turned a sizeable profit after covering transportation and sorting costs (& that was after making sure the end product was all managed ethically too!).
Metals are a very lucrative recycling industry.
Recycling is not all about landfill impact – if products are reused efficiently or reprocessed this should cut the carbon cost of processing brand new materials or at least cut the environmental impact of obtaining the raw material (recycled paper pulp versus new wood pulp for example)
I don’t get why we need so much useless packaging. I was just in Sainsbury’s and wanted to buy a califlower. The only ones that they had were in plastic bags – whats the point in that?
Witney Solicitors´s last blog ..Are you a Solicitor in Witney?