[Cambridge] Recycling

[karohemd]

I assume you have one of those blue recycling boxes now.
It's nice to have one for recycleable plastic but why bottles only? Surely, the shape doesn't matter but the material? Why can't I put in e.g. those annoying blister packs that are made of PE?
It's probably the same idiotic reasoning why I can't put cardboard into the paper recycling bin.

On the subject of recycling/waste management, where in Cambridge can I get dispose of electronics/computer stuff where it is treated/recycled and not just dumped? I have an old car radio, two keyboards and two knackered CD drives to dispose of.

Comments

[mobbsy.livejournal.com]

There's something of an answer from Tim Ward (one of the City councillors) here:
http://groups.google.co.uk/group/cam.misc/msg/51cdbc423580a046

[vyvyan.livejournal.com]

There's a discussion on cam.misc about this atm. One of the councillors quotes a FAQ (which I can't find online):

"Why can't all plastics be recycled?
- Because it's a very light and bulky material, we wanted to bale it locally, otherwise we would be transporting air around. They are being baled in Waterbeach. Do not have sorting at this site and difficult to sort after baled.
- It is a combination of lack of markets for certain types of plastic but also a lack of sorting facilities at present.
- We're hoping to be able to increase the range of plastic we collect but this is a very good start.
- Plastic bottles are easily defined and this is also an important point, particularly at this time of big change.
- The plastic bottle banks have been very successful."

Another reason I've heard is that the plastic sorters are trained to quickly recognise the right types of plastic (1, 2 and 3) by touch alone, and they are trained on bottles - training them to quickly distinguish the plastic type of many other kinds of packaging is apparently inefficient.

Cardboard can be recycled in your green bin, as can envelopes with the plastic window torn out.

Try http://www.cambridge-computer-recycling.co.uk/ for your computer bits. Their recycling policy is linked to from their website.

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

Hm. I'm reading this as laziness rather than feasibility...
Most packaging should have a mark so you can see what it's made of.
I usually try to avoid plastic packaging in the first place but sometimes this isn't possible.
Also, I'm not sure if all plastic bottles are made of the same material. I'd guess that those containing e.g. cleaning fluids are different from water bottles (because of chemical resistance etc.).

I know about cardboard in the green bin (which means it's going to be composted rather than recycled, which is my objection).
Why can't I put envelopes in the paper bin (with the plastic removed)?

Thanks for the computer recycling link!

[lzz.livejournal.com]

I totally don't understand why envelopes don't go in the paper box.

[mobbsy.livejournal.com]

Apparently the glue on them interferes with the paper recycling process.

[briggsy.livejournal.com]

We don't have that restriction, and I'm sure South Cambridgeshire DC uses the same recycling facilities as Cambridge DC. In fact they seem to define 'paper' as 'Anything papery except Yellow Pages'.

Not that SCDC provides plastic recycling facilities - they say it isn't economically feasible - recycling x amount of plastic apparently costs twice as much as simply making x amount of fresh plastic. So we have a green box paper/envelope/glass/tin collection, a green bin cardboard/garden/food collection and a black bin non-recyclable collection.

I guess I will have to start putting plastics in the green box soon as well. That box is already way too crowded, then again I drink too much.

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

Oops.

[vyvyan.livejournal.com]

Also, I'm not sure if all plastic bottles are made of the same material. I'd guess that those containing e.g. cleaning fluids are different from water bottles (because of chemical resistance etc.).

They aren't all the same material, but the majority of them are of types 1, 2 and 3, which are the only types of plastic currently recyclable in this area. Some proportion of non-bottle plastic items are also types 1, 2 or 3, but it's apparently not (currently) worth the hassle of training people to recognise them. By no means all plastic items (even bottles) have triangular marks on them indicating the plastic type, so the sorters need to recognise them by touch (which I presume is quicker too).

As someone else says, I think the problem with envelopes is the glue.

[belak-krin.livejournal.com]

Not laziness really... they have millions of items to sort each week, they can either restrict what gets recycled and actually get it done, or let people put everything in and have to throw most of it away anyways. It takes time to look for and check marks

[owdbetts.livejournal.com]

As for electrical stuff, the best thing to do, if you have space, is to hang on to it until the WEEE Directive is implemented some tim next year and we get proper electrical equipment recycling...

At the moment there aren't any really good options...

-roy

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

Hm, they've been knocking around for a while, I guess I can hold onto them for a bit longer.
Thanks for that.

[owdbetts.livejournal.com]

Though don't hold your breath... Currently scheduled for June 2006 but it's slipped twice already. (It should have been in place two months ago, so the UK is already in breach of the Directive.)

-roy