Soft Plastic Recycling now at big tesco stores

[LittleWingSoul]

www.tescoplc.com/news/2021/tesco-to-launch-uk-s-biggest-network-of-recycling-points-for-soft-plastic/

I have been separating my soft plastics since mid-August now and as a family of 5, we have barely filled a black bin bag in that time.

I'd say 95% of what was going into our general waste was soft plastics of some kind...

Crisp packets
Sweet wrappers
Cling film and plastic film from fruit and veg trays and meat trays
Plastic wrap from cheeses
Plastic film from top of cured meats/ham trays
Bubble wrap
Pasta, rice and pulse packaging
Milk bottle labels (the loose ones)
Bread bags, fruit/veg bags
Shrink wrap

... The list goes on and on!

I give it a rinse if it is a bit manky and let it drip dry before stashing it in a box wunder the sink. It needs squashing down as it is all quite bouncy, a heavy recipe book does this job quite well. Then into a larger bag in the shed when the box is full.

And when I next make a trip to my local big tesco... In it goes!

Amazing just how much of our waste was made up of this stuff.

The Co-op started this a while ago too, and yes, it means very little needs to go into the non-recycling bin.

That’s brilliant, I didn’t know they had done that so thanks for the heads up.

My local store was one of the test sites so locals have been using this for ages, it was amazing the amount of space it left in our wheelie bin. However I am heartily sick of carrying soft plastic down to Tesco now.

I've been collecting for about 3 weeks, disappointed that my local Tesco isn't on that list, but both my local Coops have recently introduced soft plastic recycling points. Barely have anything in my general waste now, other than when we have a clear out or something specific.

They do this at every co-op now!

Also sainsburys.

The article in the link is dated 10 March 2021 and is out of date. It says England and Wales, I live in central Scotland and we have one of these in our local store. I think many more stores have now been added to the list.

Sainsbury's does this in some stores too. The question I haven't had answered (and getting info out of Sainsbury's is nigh on impossible) is exactly how this stuff is recycled. The last thing I want to do is spend all that effort collecting it only to find it is shipped off abroad to be dumped there. I'd rather put it in the general waster which gets incinerated for energy in these parts.

We have this in our local Tesco now as well.

I do share Saisong's concerns and want to see how exactly they are recycling it

@Saisong I hear ya, and sometimes spend too much time thinking about this wrt to everything I recycle. Our local council are "brilliant" and take a really good amount of recycling, albeit mixed. We can also compost all food waste with them, Inc meat scraps and cooked food. I could spend a long time worrying about how contaminated other peoples recycling is and whether this just negates my lovely clean bags I put out on the kerb once a week. I try not too, because it is disheartening and I don't want to stop trying.

But I do totally understand what you are saying.

@Skyeheather out of date, I noticed that too. I don't think it was published more widely until August, at least that's when I first heard about it through the Nextdoor app.

It is amazing how much space is saved by stuffing all the nice clean soft plastic into a bag rather than letting it fill the wheelie bin up with air. It's fab that it can go somewhere to be recycled but it is an almighty faff to have to bring it down there and in mine the collection point is after the tills
So I have to wriggle through to put it in first or I couldn't do my shop because the trolley would be half full of recycling bags (I don't shop at tesco every week so it builds up).
I am happy that there's somewhere to take it but I'd much rather the council would collect it.

@BewareTheBeardedDragon Hopefully that will come in time!

Noticed the same! Do they accept crisp packets that are silver inside, does anyone know ?

@PennyWus yes, I stick them in there! Will try and find a better list... The one I gave was just a quick overview of what I'd put in mine yesterday!

@PennyWus yes - I called the Co-op helpline when my local one started, and was told they did, also pet food pouches with the silver on the inside.

I have been doing it since the summer and while I am glad to be able to recycle more, I am finding it a bit of a faff having to find places to drip dry so much plastic. And I am constantly washing stuff now (I have a dishwasher for most other things).

@ponygirlcurtis that's brilliant thank you for the info! I am lucky the people who put the kitchen in my house made some cupboard space for recycling bins, but it still isnt enough. It feels like half my kitchen and a good chunk of my garage is now storing different recyclables. The utility room has a bucket in soaking reusable cleaning cloths. I am leaving plastics and tins in the half sink when they are rinsed. Basically it is a mess the whole time!

I bought a ready meal from M&S yesterday that was designed to recycle by pulling the plastic lining away from the cardboard, but the instructions said the plastic lining wasnt recyclable at all. My council now collects clear plastic to recycle so I have no idea which is best. The right answer I suppose is not to buy the ready meal, sigh.

I halved my wheelie bin waste since starting to recycle the soft plastics. It was crazy the difference it makes since we were already recycling as much as possible anyway!