AIBU to collect plastic wrapping and tablet packaging for recycling?

Cornwall Council ,we now recycle all plastic including tetra packs.Amazing how much there is before I took soft plastic to the shop.

Well even if you were finishing 5 packets a day it would only take a couple of minutes, but of course you can do what you like with them. You can still deposit at Boots without using the app or getting points, it's just a big box with a slot.

Hard plastics that go in the recycling bin are bottles, food trays, yoghurt pots etc.

Soft plastics that (in most areas) need to go to special drop off points (most large supermarkets have one) are thing like bread bags, frozen food bags, crisps packets, the inside bag from cereal boxes. And it also includes foil/plastic pouches from things like coffee or pet food.

You don’t know how many tablets I take… have multiple chronic conditions

Yes you photograph them within the app and then they get verified, but it takes 1 or 2 minutes that's all! Hardly onerous. Plus you get points if you have an advantage card.

All our plastics go in the recycling bin for the council to collect except medicine blister packs which we drop off at Superdrug.

I give it all to the Sainsbury’s delivery person when they drop off my shopping.

Same. I used to, but judging by what I could see already in the cage, it was all so contaminated /mixed that I don't believe it can be recycled. I concluded that certain supermarkets do it because it increases footfall.

No. I didn’t realise there were people taking stuff to the shops. It wouldn’t occur to me to do that. Everything goes in the bin or recycling

I do, good for the environment and it saves so much space in the black bin which means I basically never have to go to the tip as anything I would have had to take can go in the black bin which is never more than half full.

I agree, I read that the first two weeks of the 'Iran war' created 5 million tons of CO 2.

Me too. Gets collected every 3 weeks

I’d like to recycle my tablet packets because I use loads of them, but when i tried to find out how to do it with boots you had to individually photograph every one of them to verify them or something, so they just go in the bin

Nope. Soft plastics go in the bin.

Tried it for a couple of weeks, but the place to drop soft plastics was full twice, and missing the third time. Not bothered since.

Soft plastics are plastics that are scrunchable, like bread bags, chip packets and cling film.

No I don't recycle this plastic. I used to but after reading more about it, I've come to the conclusion that it's a farce and greenwashing of the highest order.

@Dalmationday and @ProfessorBinturong. Thank you for telling me about this. I have been recycling with no problem for many years and have never heard or seen “soft plastics” mentioned. If I’m doing it wrong, of course I want to change that but what is meant by “soft plastics”? We just got a new calendar and instructions which I’ve looked at and they’re not mentioned. To add another level of complexity, we don’t have any large supermarkets nearby and I rarely visit one. I’d be prepared to stockpile, like most on here seem to, and make a special trip (polluting as I go!)

I've a carrier bag full of recycling to take to Boots chemist.
You can take empty prescription and non prescription Codine/Anadin/Paracetamol or the like, you can also take empty toothpaste/make up products.

There's an app 'Boots Recycle' which shows you what items can be recycled, there's quite a few.

If you have one you get advantage points added to your loyalty card for doing so.

I also take soft plastics and batteries to the supermarket, its surprising how much is wrapped in plastic.

TBH I recycle anything that can be recycled.

Our LA now collects soft plastics and I take my medicine empties to Boots.

why would you BU??

This is often said and it really annoys me. How can plastic bags "contaminate" a container of used cans, bottles and paper? We can work out how to extract oil from beneath the sea, but we cannot pick out plastic bags from glass bottles? And yet the council bins accept dog poo bags etc and presumably that has to be processed by some unlucky sods somewhere!

Thank you, I’ve downloaded the app, just checked and the one in the town centre where we moved to do. They take make up packaging too.

The Boots warehouse and distribution centre on the other side of town is also listed as taking make up packaging. Surprised that it would be open to the public to go on site with a few used foundation tubes.

I do pill packet recycling as I look after my parents' prescriptions and they generate a lot.

I don't yet do flimsy plastic, that will be the next step I guess.

@MadisonAvenue the Boots recycling is not at all branches, you'll need to check you local ones.

Why did pet food move to hard to recycle pouches anyhow? Always used to be tins.

A lot of the problems could be dealt with be enforcing standards on packaging to make it easier for automation to sort / pick and appropriately recycle.

This would also have the benefit of making it easier to roll out similar in other countries. Its a worldwide problem, and only doing it in western nations doesn't really see solve it.

Soft plastics recycling is currently misunderstood as it’s burnt for energy recovery, much like non-recyclable waste, or sent offshore to poorer countries for “processing”. A tiny proportion is made into pellets for bin liners or similar. The technology for sorting and re-use doesn’t exist in this country or is prohibitively expensive.

The only reason supermarkets take them is because they have been asked to by the government. Retailers then wear the costs of recycling the soft plastics and it’s hoped this will get them to change their packaging of goods.

If you like taking plastics to the supermarket by all means keep doing so, but the concept currently is really just rearranging the deckchairs.

Yes we save and take the soft plastic, supermarket is only 5 min walk though. Don’t really take any medication so havent thought to do blister packs!