recycling unwanted catalogues

[2jamsandwiches]

I have an elderly relative who gets lots of unsolicited catalogues, wrapped in that plastic film. She doesn't even look at the catalogues, and wants just to recycle them, but taking the plastic film off is quite an undertaking for her, involving sitting down with scissors etc.
So, is it more environmentally friendly to chuck the whole lot in the recycling, plastic and all, or to put it all in the ordinary rubbish? (of course the answer is for me to do it but I live 300 miles away...)

no answers?

You can get a tool for ripping the plastic off - I think they are called safe cutters. And get her to join the mailing preference service and save up all the catalogues then write return to sender on them when you see her next.

Thank you for reminding me of the mail preference thingie, I will talk to her about that - definitely best to stop the things arriving! She can manage scissors etc., but it's just that as you get less steady on your feet and have less energy, it's yet another thing to do...
The idea of returning to sender is an excellent one, why didn't I think of that! Much the easiest, and hopefully should also reduce the number of catalogues pretty quickly.

May I suggest you send her a roll of sticky printed labels with 'return to sender, please remove from mailing list - unwanted' for her to just bung on the envelopes to make it easier