There are so many things we are not "supposed " to recycle

[onepieceoflollipop]

I have been thinking a lot about this since I was on a thread recently when someone was after a mooncup and was going to have one passed on from another mnetter.

I realised that there are lots of things that for various reasons we are "advised" not to reuse/recycle.

Some of these things:

Soft drink/mineral water bottles - often labelled "for single use only" or advised not to reuse supposedly for hygiene reasons.

Cot mattresses - new one needed for each new baby, I understand this is or was due to FSID guidelines. (I managed to pass dd1's mattress on to my mum's dog and very grateful she was too)

I had an Easter egg (Cadbury's) in a tin - bizarrely the tin had stamped on it something like "not intended for re-use - dispose of safely, recyclable steel". What is all that about? Especially as C'bury's this year made a big thing about selling some eggs without boxes to minimise packaging.

Car seats - even if you know where it came from(relative or whatever) I have read that they start to deteriorate after 6 years anyway is this true?

Reusable nappies - e-bay won't let you sell them, I think because there is a chance they may have been in contact with bodily fluids (you don't say!) Thankfully there are other places you can sell them.

Sorry for long post. Any other things people can think of and solutions for recycling these things?

Meat packaging trays and yoghurt pots. It really annoys me that we're not allowed to recycle them even though they are the same plastic as bottles etc and could easily go in with them.

(I have to admit that I scrub them out and recycle anyway, but it still annoys me).

There are other forums where you can sell used cloth nappies, such as usednappies.co.uk, and I have bought second hand cloth nappies for dd (after all, you can wash them on a hot wash with nappisan). You could also try your local real nappy network - they usually have 'for sale' boards at nappucinos.

Car seats are largely made from some form of polystyrene, and I would imagine that it is correct that that deteriorates with time and use. I should have thought the plastic components would be recyclable, if you can find any organisation to take them.

I think the warning on plastic bottles is a backside covering exercise relating to EU regulations on cleaning bottles for re-use (and also to encourage us to buy more of them!). Personally, I do wash and re-use them. There is a plastic recycling facility in my area where I take them when I've finished with them.

Don't know what to suggest about steel tins - freecycle?

From a manufacturing standpoint, a lot of the issue in marking things as reusable is that it then involves an awful lot more testing, documentation etc than a single use device - for instance, in the case of the easter egg tin, it was used as a secondary protective layer (egg in foil inside), and therefore didn't have to meet the international standards for food containers in terms of proving that nothing could leach out of the metal etc.

Soft drink bottles - again, they aren't designed to be washed out, or to contain fluids other than the original, or to be stable beyond the shelf life of the product. Not to say it would be a problem, but by marking as single use, they don't have to worry about these things. Best solution ? Get a water filter and a Sodastream, plus some reusable bottles.

We had that cadbury's egg tin too last year. The 'not intended for re-use' thing irritated me so much I've been using it as a pencil pot ever since - the world hasn't ended yet!

Cot mattresses are fine for using again with your own children!! I think they have also changed the guidelines on this anyway to say that if you know where a mattress is coming from and it's in good nick then it's fine. My crib mattress was £80 new and was used for a few weeks for 2 babies - still someone refused to use it!!

I seem to remember that there was something called common sense around but sadly you can't buy it in the supermarket.

A friend of mine was throwing fresh juice away after 3 days because that is what it said on the carton.

Egg cartons -- like toilet rolls, we used to re-use both these for crafts as kids, but wouldn't be allowed, now. But usually find someone on Freecycle will take the egg boxes, tho.

Cardboard egg boxes and loo rolls you can recycle with other cardboard or compost. I return polystyrene ones to the lady on the farmers market!

I think it is an individual school/nursery decision on loo rolls/egg boxes for craft - bonkers!!

I thought it was a joke when I heard (ages ago) that some people say you shouldn't use loo roll tubes.

I'm afraid we put ours to good use at Christmas for crackers!

p.s. meant to say re the cot mattress. I would have used it again for dd2, but it had a big dent in the middle - dd1 was in her cot for almost 3 years and it dd2 wouldn't have been comfortable sleeping in a big dip.

I live in Germany and the recycling policy here is light years ahead. Every month they come and collect as many yellow bin bags as you can fill with recycling - and you can put any plastic/card/tin food packaging in it. - esp tetra packs which are hard to get rid of in UK. If they can do it here, why not in UK - I get rid of, on average, about 10 bin bags a month. The other great thing here is there are NO free carrier bags - you are just expected to bring your own shopping bags, and it is so easy to get into the habit

We just got Tetra Pac bins over here!!! They are terribly designed as you can only post one carton at a time and are always full... a step in the right direction though.

Our local authority (Easington/ Durham) collects all plastics except thermoset ones now and also collects tetrapaks. The one green jute bag they provide for all this, paper and card is usually full after a week though, and they only collect fortnightly. I think we might be asking for another.

What really mystifies me, is why is my bin full every week even though I compost veggie waste and some cardboard, recycle glass, plastic, paper and cans, and use mainly cloth nappies

Our council collects biscuit/chocolate tins for recycling.

One things that made me recently was reading the conditions for a local NCT nearly new sale: they won't accept 2nd-hand school shoes, although they do accept other types of shoes 2nd-hand. I can't think of a good reason for that one!

Why not 2nd hand school shoes???? I am trying so hard to work that one out! Bit bizarre.......