| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Plastics Recycling in Ealing | |
| Posted by: | Philippa Bond | |
| Date/Time: | 23/01/18 17:24:00 |
| The biggest problem is the increase in plastic packaging - not just in covering everything in plastic but also putting everything in plastic as the amount of glass packaging is reduced. If it escapes from waste collection it doesn't biodegrade like paper and biodegradable plastic is not considered to be the great answer that it was once thought to be either. Why do some supermarkets think that we need to have aubergines wrapped and others don't etc? We should all be complaining about excessive packaging as when we don't we are complicit in accepting and encouraging it. In other countries in Europe people can leave their packaging at the supermarket which which means that the cost of disposing of it isn't brought home with us. It's great when you do see it reduced and improved and we should encourage and praise these changes. If you buy from greengrocers you won't get so much packaging on your fruit and vegetables, you can buy the amount that you want and no more. You can also take your own container to the butcher. China has been making noises about all the waste that we send them for years and started becoming fussier about what they accepted. Here the argument has always been that its better for those containers that came in full of stuff from China to be sent back full. Councils and waste companies generally have many different contracts as market forces change as do the technology and machinery on the market, taxes and the law. There used to be a list of where your recycling goes on the Ealing website. Kerbside recycling may not have the same markets as that from street banks or HWRCs. It spreads the risks when there are environmental responsibilities as well as financial responsibilities and gives flexibility. It would be better if all packaging was designed for recycling and as a result a lot of packaging has changed to be easier to recycle ie is not now of mixed material. WRAP has done a lot of work with companies to change design and lightweight packaging to make it recycling easier. We need to lobby companies to not use difficult to recycle packaging just for marketing purposes eg because those red tomatoes or that meat look particularly good in a black tray. Having said that I have seen some black trays which are marked rPET which means that they are made with recycled PET (or presumably a percentage thereof). There was a list published recently of difficult to recycle packaging: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-39953209 |