I have always have had worries about the viability of domestic waste recycling. Take, for a simple example, plastic bottles. These occupy large amounts of space, even when partially crushed but are low in weight of recoverable plastic. To collect them necessitates a heavy vehicle frequently stopping & starting along miles of residential roads; then, when full, transport to a depot and from there to a recycling plant for recovery of usable plastic. Is the carbon saved at the point that reclaimed plastic granules issue forth into a delivery lorry more than that expended by all the handling and transport involved?
Will the cost of this recovered plastic to the bottle-makers be less than that of new material; or are taxpayers subsidising recycling as a matter of Government policy in order to keep the raw materials in the ground and waste out of land-fill?
Presumably someone has done the sums.
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Plastic isn't making as much money as it used to - the market has changed - but every local authority has to reduce landfill or be penalised. The answer is to reduce the use of plastic packaging, but that message seems to be taking a long time to get across. If there was a way to penalise companies who use excessive plastic, that would help. There are alternatives. I still have doorstep milk deliveries in glass bottles. The sale of milk in plastic containers ought to be discouraged.
ReplyDeleteMy friend Sue Mackie MBE, a retired teacher from our village school, is the recycling queen - http://school-recycling.blogspot.com/