Recycling question....

[rich p]

Back in the day before we had house collections, we had to separate our green, brown and white glass in the big communal bins on pain of spoiling the whole batch if a stray green bottle should plop into the wrong colour bin.

Now we can bung them all in together and sleep safely in our beds without the dread fear of the bottle police coming knocking on the door. How does that work?

ALSO> The communal bins in our area, I now see, allow plastic, cans and paper to go in together. Is this a sinister landfill disaster or can I go to bed knowing there is a master plan?

 

[Hover Fly]

In my old home town the council collectors sorted it into mesh cages on the back of the wagon.

 

[Gromit]

Hiya the clear glass is the most valuable, that is the stuff that gets made back into bottles.

The brown, green and blue glass is least valuable, this gets crushed and ends up as road surfaces.

I really don't know why manufacturing companies in this country can not just reuse its old bottles, so much energy goes into reforming glass. Where as steam cleaning would cost very little in comparison

 

[beanzontoast]

Hiya the clear glass is the most valuable, that is the stuff that gets made back into bottles.

The brown, green and blue glass is least valuable, this gets crushed and ends up as road surfaces.

I really don't know why manufacturing companies in this country can not just reuse its old bottles, so much energy goes into reforming glass. Where as steam cleaning would cost very little in comparison

Some of us may remember taking 'empties' of big glass pop bottles back to the shop as kids and getting 3d for each one. There was in effect a deposit on each bottle, and this was printed onto the bottle in many cases. It would be great to see this return.

 

[GrasB]

Presumably it's because you'd logically need standard bottles (or a range of standard sizes) and you'd need a deposit scheme to make it work properly, which adds a lot of overheads.

We've had our milk delivery company changed a few years ago & the new one still uses glass bottles. Rinse them out, put them on the doorstep & they get reused at very little cost... the proper way to recycle.

 

[rich p]

Hiya the clear glass is the most valuable, that is the stuff that gets made back into bottles.

The brown, green and blue glass is least valuable, this gets crushed and ends up as road surfaces.

The point I'm making though is why are green, brown and clear all collected together now? I can't believe the smashed bottles in communal bins are sorted out later.

 

[rodgy-dodge]

Hiya the clear glass is the most valuable, that is the stuff that gets made back into bottles.

The brown, green and blue glass is least valuable, this gets crushed and ends up as road surfaces.

I really don't know why manufacturing companies in this country can not just reuse its old bottles, so much energy goes into reforming glass. Where as steam cleaning would cost very little in comparison

I remember when the lemonade man used to come round and collect their bottles for t'pence also the milk man when we had milk delivered in glass bottles.
I've often wondered why companies don't go back to doing this too or just have a collection point at the supermarkets. It wouldn't cost them any more in fuel because they would be delivering anyway!

 

[Stig-OT-Dump]

Rich
I believe they now have machines that will break the glass into the optimum size and then sort it by colour using (iirc) laser or light transmission devices.
Plastics I believe have to be sorted by hand.
Tins can be separated between ferrous and aluminium by using magnetic conveyors.
Paper I thought was soiled and put beyond recycling by being in contact with foodstuffs but there may be other ways of using it (such as biomass)
Arch can probably correct any errors on my part.

 

[Fnaar]

Some of us may remember taking 'empties' of big glass pop bottles back to the shop as kids and getting 3d for each one. There was in effect a deposit on each bottle, and this was printed onto the bottle in many cases. It would be great to see this return.

It was a great way of getting extra pocket money

 

[beanzontoast]

It was a great way of getting extra pocket money

Yes it was. Although a startling proportion of the refunds I got seemed not to make it home before being spent on Walkers cheese and onion crisps...

 

[rich p]

Rich
I believe they now have machines that will break the glass into the optimum size and then sort it by colour using (iirc) laser or light transmission devices.
Plastics I believe have to be sorted by hand.
Tins can be separated between ferrous and aluminium by using magnetic conveyors.
Paper I thought was soiled and put beyond recycling by being in contact with foodstuffs but there may be other ways of using it (such as biomass)
Arch can probably correct any errors on my part.

Thanks Stig! It's an education on here

 

[ianrauk]

I remember when the lemonade man used to come round and collect their bottles for t'pence also the milk man when we had milk delivered in glass bottles.
I've often wondered why companies don't go back to doing this too or just have a collection point at the supermarkets. It wouldn't cost them any more in fuel because they would be delivering anyway!

We still get our milk delivered. It's costs a bit more then supermarket milk. But it's a good price to pay for a nice pint of fresh milk on our doorstep every day.

 

[Davidc]

Here the recyclers' truck has separate compartments for different colour glass, and for all the other bits and pieces. The collectors separate it and put it all in the right section.

I'd like to see re-use replacing recycling for bottles. Making a bottle then using it only once is very wasteful, and we used to manage re-use on fizzy drinks, beer, milk, and all sorts of other things. The lorries which delivered the goods to the shops or the offy took the used ones away on their return trip which was fuel efficient too.

 

[subaqua]

here in Waltham forest there are multiple schemes operating depending on where in the borough you live.

we have a wheely bin for recycling and all Glass , metal plastic paper card etc goes in it. its collected by a refuse wagon and is sorted at a depot.

if you are unlicky enough to have the black boxes then you can put it all in one box but its sorted at roadside into separate bulk sections.

we also have a brown bin for compostable stuff and a normal black bin for any waste that isn't recylable. the black one gets maybe 1 bag a fortnight.

 

[Speicher]

The recycling from this county and Herefordshire is sorted by a computerised system. It cannot cope with aluminium foil, but I take that to Oxfam. Milk is delivered in bottles.

I would like to know how to recycle the following

Black plastic (as in frozen food plastic containers)
Asthma inhaler plastic canisters
Plastic bottle tops, other than milk bottle tops

Then I would probably not need a rubbish bin at all. Food waste is collected separately, and I also have a compost bin.