I'm sure many of you out there have your green recycling bin, or recycle using other methods.
Anyway I noticed how many products were not recyclable in these bins... such as a plastic mustard container.
Now does this just have to be recycled in a different way, or does this mean that is just ends up in a land fill? Does anyone know.
It does not seem right when they can have recyclable drink bottles, but not for mustard, and other products, shampoo bottles and things.
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you check the little number on the ...
you check the little number on the bottom to find out.. I think 1 and 2 are recyclable through the green bin chain thing...
off to cricket.
Thanks, even I didn't know that....
Thanks, even I didn't know that.
The plastic numbers represent the most ...
The plastic numbers represent the most commonly used plastics which are recyclable. Dragging my mind back to high school science, I seem to recollect there are two main types of plastic, one which melts when it gets hot, and the other that sets when it gets hot. It kinda makes sense that things that the melty things are recyclable and the others aren't. From the top of my head the plastic recycling numbers go from 1 to 6 (7 is "other"), but generally only 1 & 2 are recycled in NZ. I was initially a bit annoyed by this (back when SEA used to do it we could take in the rest as well). However, I've been pleasantly surprised to find that probably about 90% of the plastic in my house at least is 1 & 2 so maybe it is not too bad. The main culprit for not being recylable is ice cream containers which are 4. But we don't eat a lot of ice-cream, and tend to re-use the containers anyway.
The things which are currently not collected will either because of expense or small volume. It is, however, worth considering environmental trade-offs. Currently, all our 1 plastic goes to Australia (to return as coke bottles) or to Asia to become polar fleece. But does the impact of shipping it there outweigh the benefit of recycling it?
Your mustard container will either be a mix of plastics, in which case it's unrecyclable, or it's just one of the ones which could be recycled, but there's just not enough of it to make it viable...
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Very interesting stuff from the ...
Very interesting stuff from the Scientist.
thanks for that. It still leaves me ...
thanks for that.
It still leaves me thinking they could make ice cream out of a number one or two plastic.
ice cream containers that is :)...
ice cream containers that is :)
You could see if the mustard comes in ...
You could see if the mustard comes in refill packs? Like how my household buys tomato sauces in *recycleable* tins, and refills an old bottle.
yes, we need to save our resources ...
yes, we need to save our resources before it's too late!!!
A related positive thing is the new use ...
A related positive thing is the new use of a polymer in place of plastic which will dissolve cleanly in water.
It's obviously not useful for external packaging, but I've heard people are looking into how it could work inside boxes as a substitute for the squiggly polystyrene you get round computers, etc.
From memory Cadbury are already using it for trays in their chocolate boxes... ah yes, here's an article:
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