Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Aug 21, 2013 12:06:35 GMT
well i think you're talking about the plastic packaging bottles of water and other soft drinks.. but what if people are using the 1.5 liter Plastic bottled to place them in fridges. and such kind of bottles are easily available in any departmental store..are these bottles are not dangerous for the health.. if yes?? then why doesn't government or health agencies stop it, and if it is not dangerous for health, then why are these packaging bottled been criticize???
|
|
|
Post by whollygoats on Aug 21, 2013 13:36:15 GMT
Plastic beverage bottles being reused is fine, IF they are regularly sanitized. What happens though, is the users tend to get lazy and not sanitize their bottles and instead repeatedly refill them...this leads to unsanitary bottles and bad health results.
I spent five years as a professional recycler (and dustman). The collective in which I was involved was one of very few which served as an example for the local state government to encourage curbside pick-up of user-separated clean recyclables. We introduced scrap paper recycling and separated yard debris recycling...in 1985. Since, our refuse hauling and, consequently, curbside recycling has moved away from source separation and now the allow the end user to mix paper, metals, and plastic bottles with threaded necks in one bin, with cleaned bottle glass in a separate carrier, yard debris and compostables in another bin, and unrecycleable waste in a third bin. Recycling and yard debris are picked up weekly, refuse only biweekly. In addition, there is a recycling drop-off center that takes the items recycled at curbside AND items which are not picked up curbside...like 'rigid plastics', block and colored sytrofoam, electronics, and 'white goods' (household appliances). It used to take 'film plastics', which included clean plastic bags; that has been terminated, for the time being.
I'm not particularly pleased with the approach of allowing multiple materials together, as it requires post-pickup mechanical sorting, which is hideously energy intensive and, from my view, at least, makes the whole recycling process even more of a net loss, resource-wise. It also encourages lazy, slovenly behavior from the 'end recycle', in that instead of recycling only clean materials, they toss in soiled items...which leads to vermin at both sites, and, an argument against providing the service at all. I suspect that this category has gotten most of the spoilt foodstuffs in it, coming from food packaging containers like bread and sandwich bags.
|
|
|
Post by JoeP on Aug 21, 2013 13:43:18 GMT
I like your last point wg.
But re the first, what constitutes good enough sanitising? Is normal dishwashing (with detergent) enough? Or should you use the kind of sterilisation you'd use for brewing, say?
Or an autoclave ... to completely melt the plastic ...
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Aug 21, 2013 13:53:17 GMT
whollygoats , I caught an item in the nws recently that by 2015 , all recycling materials will have to be put in separate bins to comply with new European reg's .
ie....1 bin for metal , 1 for glass ,1 for plastics etc.etc.
|
|
|
Post by Mari on Aug 21, 2013 17:28:21 GMT
I'd be happy to do so... IF the bins are provided. Right now I do have to separate, but they throw it all in the same van, not separated at all. Then why the different bags?
|
|
|
Post by whollygoats on Aug 21, 2013 19:43:42 GMT
I like your last point wg. But re the first, what constitutes good enough sanitising? Is normal dishwashing (with detergent) enough? Or should you use the kind of sterilisation you'd use for brewing, say? Or an autoclave ... to completely melt the plastic ... Rinse with tap water until the offending materials are washed away. You don't even need to run them through a dishwasher. Really very easy, but you'd be surprised how many folks refuse to do even that.
|
|
|
Post by JoeP on Aug 21, 2013 20:13:26 GMT
So if you've only ever had tap water in it ... no need to rinse?
|
|
|
Post by whollygoats on Aug 21, 2013 20:25:47 GMT
I'd be happy to do so... IF the bins are provided. Right now I do have to separate, but they throw it all in the same van, not separated at all. Then why the different bags? That puts a bit of an upper limit on what can be picked up curbside. Monthly, we were collecting; Newsprint, preferrably bagged in standard kraft paper grocery bags or tied with twine. Cardboard, preferrably bundled and tied to keep it from flying away from the moving truck. Clear bottle glass Green bottle glass Brown bottle glass Rinsed flattened steel cans and their lids. Rinsed aluminum. Mixed scrap paper. Small amounts of scrap metal, ferrous and non-ferrous. Waste motor oil, preferrably in tightly capped plastic milk jugs And, separately, we collected from offices: Separated white paper. Colored office paper. Green-bar computer paper and, from our household garbage accounts, weekly pickup of separated (no meats, no cereals, no non-putresibles) kitchen compostables (by our garbage haulers, not our recyclers) Yard debris...call for pickup. The biggest earner was newsprint and it was the largest in terms of bulk weight. In terms of bulk, though, cardboard (and kraft paper bags) was the largest volume. There was a challenge keeping the clear glass clean of colors, but green and brown often got combined, but the amount of brown glass was negligible, as most of it went back to retailers as deposit beer bottles before it got 'recycled'. So, Mari...Are you up for keeping that many separate containers around the house? Me? I have 'rigid plastics' that I collect in a huge wicker basket and take in to the drop-off when it is full. I personally think that bottled water is fine for touristas who don't want to expose themselves to endemic intestinal crud, but around here, the tap water is significantly more pure than even the typical bottled water. Yes, they tested it against the major brands about 15 years back; it's cleaner. However, it certainly promotes highly non-biodegradable littering. Israel, for example, is a disgusting mess of masses of flattened discarded plastic beverage bottles. I saw the same in places in China.
|
|
|
Post by whollygoats on Aug 21, 2013 20:26:35 GMT
So if you've only ever had tap water in it ... no need to rinse? Not just 'tap' water, any ordinary water, including mineral water.
|
|
|
Post by whollygoats on Aug 21, 2013 20:49:12 GMT
whollygoats , I caught an item in the nws recently that by 2015 , all recycling materials will have to be put in separate bins to comply with new European reg's . ie....1 bin for metal , 1 for glass ,1 for plastics etc.etc. That's tame.... Only one for metal? We separated ferrous from aluminiums, from brass and bronze, even, on occasion, silver from photographic processes. Only one for glass? We separated by color: clear, green and brown, and pulled reusables like canning jars out of that stream. Only one for plastics? We currently separate by 'rigid', 'film', sytrofoam (white block and colored), plus most plastic containters include a plastic type-code imprinted on the object and the plastics need to be separated by that. But...we're allowed to recycle threaded-neck plastic bottles with our paper, cardboard, steel and aluminum recyclables...all together.
|
|
|
Post by Mari on Aug 21, 2013 21:12:10 GMT
WG, no I'm not, but if I'm asked to separate my plastics from organic waste and I do so, why throw them all in the same collection van? They used to have more in this town I've been told, but they stripped it back to a grey and a blue bin and paper. There are also hardly any collection points for old textiles.
My previous town was much better at collection than this one.
|
|
|
Post by Alvamiga on Aug 21, 2013 21:51:44 GMT
I think the recycling facilities are getting much more efficient. I saw something on TV the other week where they had shredded up a load of different plastics and the bits where falling past a row of lasers that worked out what type of plastic each bit was and then was using tiny air jets to shoot the pieces into the relevant bins for recycling. It was very impressive to see it working.
|
|
|
Post by kingedmund on Aug 24, 2013 4:31:21 GMT
I do buy water in the summer as I cannot stand all the chlorine and chemicals they put in our water here. I do also recycle here. I try to buy the big gallon to 5 gallon bottles but NOW MY friggen grocery store has decided to discontinue all of that. Getting in contact with the owner and going to get this fixed this week. He returns from his trip then.
|
|
|
Post by tangent on Aug 25, 2013 5:52:18 GMT
The EU has passed a law making it illegal to sell products in a reusable container unless the container was manufactured and has been declared fit for reuse. So this means we can no longer legally sell home-made jams and marmalade in reused jam jars at church fairs. Most people who once knew that have quietly forgotten about it.
|
|
|
Post by Alvamiga on Aug 25, 2013 10:57:11 GMT
Yes, the EU does love its senseless bureaucracy!
|
|
|
Post by Mari on Aug 25, 2013 13:04:19 GMT
I'm sure the law was made with big producers in mind, not church fairs. And for big manufacturers it makes sense.
|
|
|
Post by Alvamiga on Aug 25, 2013 13:36:14 GMT
Yes, but these laws get made and then someone finds a way to abuse them... they don't care about who gets trampled as a result.
|
|