To ask if you recycle your plastics?

[motherofthelittlescreamingone]

I'm not asking about the yoghurt pots that all councils take that don't take much effort to recycle, but about the cellophane wrapper packets that are marked "recycle with bags at big supermarkets" or similar. I only became aware that they were recyclable over lockdown when I was at home and life slowed down a bit and on maternity leave subsequently I made an effort to collect it all and put it in the bin at the supermarket.

The relevant bin is really very small in my nearest supermarket and I just can't believe that many people do recycle there.

I guess I wondered how many people are like I was and just were unaware that this existed, or have I been massively behind the curve?

Very lucky in that our local council has recently started taking all packets like that as part of plastic recycling. Prior to that no I didn’t, and sometimes I still forget, but our landfill waste has definitely gone down.

I take plastic bags and cellophane type wrappings to our supermarket. I do wonder at times if someone just collects them and chucks them in landfill- I have no way of knowing they're actually recycled. But I have to believe that it's worth it and we're saving the planet...

Yes. I have a cloth bag for local shopping. Milk bread etc. I put plastic wraps in that and empty every time I go to Coop. I don’t clean out crisp packets tho. Maybe my next step.
it’s reduced my rubbish a lot!

Yep, bag under the sink. I started when i got two cats and realised you can recycle the food pouches along with other plastic. Once bag gets filled, tie up, pop it into boot and take to tesco when I'm in the area/shopping. Not hard work at all.

It's amazing how much our gets filled though, I didn't absurdly realise how much plastic i was chucking out before i started recycling it.

Need to start looking into toiletry recycling next

Recycling is the biggest scam from plastics manufacturers to appear environmentally friendly.

Less than 10% of recyclables are actually recycled. It ends up in garbage dumps or in the ocean.

Isn't it better to just not buy as much stuff in plastic? No matter how efficient your household recycling system is, ultimately it's still waste that needs collection and processing in one way or another.

Yes, I take mine to Sainsbury's, but it's a tiny bin and often overflowing. Which is awkward if you walk to the supermarket and now can't get rid of it to make room for shopping.

I did also wonder how energy efficient it was picking up such small quantities at once.

I've been really surprised by how much soft plastic we seemto have. I think we have about a carrier bag full each week. It doesn't take much to separate it out.

Yes I do and it makes a huge difference in my rubbish bin.

We have a huge Tesco nearby and the bin is always full, our local small Sainsbury also has a smaller one,again often full.

The small bins at Co-op and Waitrose are also always overflowing.

We have a large Ikea bag in the cupboard under the stairs and it just goes in and when we use the Tesco it goes with us and comes back empty. I use all kind of larger bags for the tiny things, bread bag, toilet paper bag, online shopping bags etc.

I agree but some things are really hard to avoid. I found that if I don't work I bake more and have less plastic as I don't buy bread or biscuits. But unfortunately it's not that easy.

Also, I looked into re-fill stations for pasta as we go through quite a lot - they don't exist nearby unfortunately.

I would love to see more packaging made from plastic-like stuff like cornstarch as they are recycleable for commercial food waste collections. The issue with them is that they break down a lot faster so the shelf live of some products is shorter.

Had a small panic as I put all my plastic like this in my council recycling bag , but have just checked and all is good they take it along with all the other plastics I’ve been putting in . No idea how they sort it once they collect it kind you .

@motherofthelittlescreamingone I've been trying to find this thread for ages! The week after you posted this- I noticed a plastic bag collection point right at the door to my local aldi. I saved up the bags and then the day I went in- they'd moved the bin and no one in the shop knew what I was talking about! 😡So I had to carry my bag back to the car. I went to lidl and when I asked the cashier- she said to just put them in the bin over there- a regular waste bin!!!

Anyways, since last year, I have recycled each and every plastic bag/wrapper thing I can. Thank you for raising awareness of this- for me at least. I do just hope it does get recycled and its being put into landfill somewhere else!

I take mine to Morrisons when in town. I recycle a lot more now than what I was allowed to put in my recycle bin.

I've seen similar bin in Aldi too.

I am delighted to have had even a little influence :)

I continue to try to recycle Plastic wrappers myself, though the bins still seem very small at my local shop if lots of people are indeed doing it!