Recycling

by Kaere Thu Jun 21, 2018 9:22 am

How woefully uninformed are we... all the rhetoric about how our plastics are being recycled and turned into other things. I guess we should have asked who is doing the transformations, where is this stuff happening? Cause it hasn't been us. Sending our garbage elsewhere to be dealt with and all the while taking credit for being so 'green' and environmentally conscious.

Nothing has been recycled, it's all just been piled up in someone else's backyard.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/china-plastics-import-ban-1.4712764

by Rockhopper Fri Jun 22, 2018 5:49 am

Yep we are messy creatures! Here the gubbies are discussing a 25c surcharge on plastic bottles but the manufacturers are upset about it. The money collected is supposed to help find a way of reusing the plastic.

Tim.

by Kaere Fri Jun 22, 2018 6:21 am

What's a gubbie?

Not just messy, Rockhopper. My point is that we are two-faced and holier-than-thou-without-being-holy.

We have deposits on our bottles and such as well, but we can get it back if we return our bottles to a facility.

by Rockhopper Fri Jun 22, 2018 1:11 pm

Politicians Ka.

You're quite right it's a case of out-of-sight --out-of-mind.

Tim.

by Agartha Fri Jun 22, 2018 4:41 pm

This is what I read about Scotland... I don't see anything saying it goes to China o other countries... I hope it doesn't.

Paper is sent to a mill in England for reprocessing; aluminium is sent to a processing plant in Warrington where it is melted down and re-used; plastic goes to three different plants in England, where it is shredded, cleaned and re-used. Plastic tends to be re-used in non-food bottles; it can also be turned into clothes, like the yellow jackets we are wearing on the site.

As for the waste that cannot be recycled, that is exported to Scandinavia, where it is burned to produce electricity. At the moment this is something that cannot be done in Scotland, but that will change when a new facility at Polmadie in Glasgow opens. The £154m scheme is expected to divert 200,000 tonnes of waste from landfill each year, providing renewable energy that will power 22,000 homes.

http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/15857805.Behind_the_scenes_at_a_Glasgow_recycling_centre__What_it_really_means_to_go_green/

by Kaere Fri Jun 22, 2018 5:14 pm

That sounds like the right way to get things done! Go Scotland!

by Rogue Fri Jun 22, 2018 6:08 pm

Australia's plastics were going to China, but now China, as Kaeres OP story says, is no longer taking any more. This has started a bit of a problem here and a couple of councils have stopped collecting recycled material, it's all now going into landfill again.

Single-use supermarket plastic bags are being banned here as of July 1, the end of next week. Already causing a bit of a stir.