[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.

[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