Which types of plastic can be recycled?

Bottle recycling in Brighton

Plastic bottles are the only plastics that Brighton & Hove and many other local authorities currently recycle. Plastic bottles are mainly made from PET plastic (soft drinks and water bottles) and HDPE (milk and detergent bottles). There are already markets for plastic bottles as these can be recycled back into bottles or even fleeces!

There are several reasons why other plastics are not currently being recycled. These include:

There are not well developed and secure markets for all plastics. This means we may not be able to sell them on.
Even though some items such as food trays might be made from PET, they have different properties than the PET used to make bottles. This means we may not be able to process the material.
Plastics are used to make food trays and there is a concern that residents might place trays out for recycling that still contain food. If too much recycling becomes contaminated, it cannot be processed.

Lids

Yes as the lids are made from different plastics so can contaminate the recycling. Please wash and squash your plastic bottles and put them in your recycling box without lids.

And come contradictory advice from Twitter:

BHCC_Cityclean (@RecyclingRefuse) Jan 7 2016, on communal recycling bins: If you’re removing plastic lids from glass bottles, just unscrew the top and leave the ring attached to the bottle. You can cut them off if you really want to remove them. Plastic bottles can have them left on. Ryan.

Soya milk and Tetra Pack recycling

Couldn’t find the Tetra Pack recycling point on the council website but it’s here. Magpie might collect them too.

Alpro and granaVita have slightly fewer components: some of them have an extra plastic bung.

And Bonsoy has no plastic bits… yey! (But it is twice the price.)

Refuse collection

It’s easy to forget how convenient it is for somebody else to sort your rubbish out for you. Brighton during the bin strike, June 2013.

Plastic bags

It goes without saying: no plastic bags. Ever! People argue that they reuse them, but how many times must they be reused to justify the decades they will be hanging around afterwards? Must they be handed down to their children to offset the manufacturing cost and environmental impact? Even official bags-for-life are unlikely to last for the duration of your lifetime as claimed. But a cotton bag will at least have a chance of decomposition when it has reached the end of its useful life.

The answer can only be to not use plastic bags at all. See this article in the Wall Street Journal.

Various Twitter chat about plastic bags:

Waitrose

Dean Turbo @deanturbo Jan 3 2016:

“@waitrose hi! Can beercan plastic rings go in with the plastic bag recycling? And are they sorted manually when they leave the store?”

Waitrose @waitrose Jan 3 2016:

“@deanturbo I’m afraid not - only plastic bags and film displaying the OPRL logo can be recycled”

On-Pack Recycling Label: http://www.oprl.org.uk/

Sainsbury’s

Dean Turbo @deanturbo Jan 12 2016:

“@sainsburys Hi! Just noticed the 5p bags don’t have the OPRL logo on them. Does this mean they can’t be recycled in store?”

Sainsbury’s @sainsburys Jan 12 2016:

“@deanturbo Hi Dean, they’re made of recycled material and are recyclable, we’ll replace them free of charge if they become damaged.”

And here are some biodegradable bin bags from Infinity Foods. See d2w.

Alternative recycling companies

http://www.magpie.coop/services/greenbox

How long until it’s gone?

< Top