|
|
|
|
23/8/2018 0 Comments Talking Rubbish!Quite literally, Lesley Taylor from Veolia joined us to talk rubbish at our August meeting! With recycling high on our agenda and a constant source of news, we got a behind the scenes introduction to the Notts County Council recycling schemes and even the most eco-savvy of us found out a few surprising facts. Most of us are probably aware that some things, like paper, can be recycled over and over again. In fact paper will be recycled four or five times before it then becomes cardboard. Steel and aluminium have the same principle, and it's actually 95% faster to recycle tins than make them from new. They are infinitely recyclable and lose nothing of their structure in the process. Plastic is the largest issue facing us all, not just to recycle but the message that responsible disposal is absolutely key to cleaning up our oceans and maintain healthy wildlife and resources. As much as 800 plastic bottles were found per square mile on a recent beach clean. That's a LOT of littering! The general rule of thumb is that a quarter of the content of a bottle was used in oil to create it. Imagine a one litre bottle - 250ml of oil was used to produce it. But to recycle it uses no oil at all. It seems a no-brainer, right? There is still a lot of confusion around which plastics can be recycled, and manufacturers confuse matters further by adding a 'recycle' logo to a lot of plastic trays and punnets which is misleading, as they cannot be recycled, These 'hard plastics' are actually at the end of their recycling life, so while your hand soap bottle is fine to recycle, the pump action lid isn't. The milk bottle is fine, but the top can't be recycled. This rule applies to quite a few items, even margarine tubs. Oddly the lid is made from a harder plastic than the tub! The opposite end of the scale is also a confusion. Plastic bags - low grade plastics - can be recycled, but sadly, no one wants them. Reprocessing outlets find no value and unless located directly next door to a waste management company, these are never made use of. When they are used, they can be formed into backing for carpet underlay. Resourceful and crafty folk have also recently started weaving, knitting or crocheting with plastic bags to make sleeping mats for the homeless, which is a far better use for them. Plastic coated items are the biggest strain - they cannot be recycled in any way, so Pringles tubes and TetraPaks are huge offenders and find their way frequently into recycling bins. Due to design trends, around 80% of wrapping paper - for any occasion - is also no longer recyclable, due to plastic coatings, glitter and other such additions. A lot of sorting is done by machines to remove contamination but a large amount is done by hand, to weed out those items which machines can't pick up, especially black plastics which are invisible to a machine using laser light. Bear that thought in mind and help them out by rinsing your recycling - imagine the whiff off sour milk as you work and it may make you think twice! But what about everything we shove into the general waste bin? Doesn't it all go to landfill? Not so! Currently in Nottinghamshire, only 10% of general waste actually goes to landfill - the rest is burned for electricity and produces only steam residue, so there's no harmful toxins and smoke filling up the air. The biggest shocker to us all was that shredded paper can NOT be recycled. Why is this? Because it causes chaos in the machinery. Any dampness and it becomes papier mache, spreads all over the floor and jams up the machines. Bag it and bin it instead! In other news, as the winter season comes around and we prepare for our move to the winter venue, discussion and funding this year has led to the decision to vote on a return to the Community Centre rather than the Church. Costs are much lower, parking is better and lighting is safer, and due to our work around the community and supporting the work at the centre, it's been offered to us at a cut price. We'll be voting next meeting so think about your preference and we'll go with the majority. The poppies project is coming along well but we always need more, Brenda will be drumming up support and more craft sessions are planned so keep your ears open for the dates!
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorOur WI members adventures, news and gossip! Archives
May 2021
Categories |