Tesco - soft plastic recycling

[vickster]

What does 'recycle' mean, ship them to the third world and dump them?
I live in Braintree, it could have been one of my sacks of 'recyclable' waste that Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall found on that rubbish tip in the far east a couple of years ago.

https://www.tescoplc.com/news/2021/...network-of-recycling-points-for-soft-plastic/

 

[I like Skol]

Leave to dry a bit on draining board and then put it in an old bag which can then go in the recycling?

I guess that's fine if you live on your own and don't have many pots or generate much waste, but in a full family house like mine the drainer is usually crammed full and stacked up so I don't really want partially washed food/catfood packaging adding to the pile and dripping goodness knows what over my clean pots and worktops.
And before anyone questions my commitment to the reduce and recycle cause I was taking my cans/glass/plastic bottles to recycling long before the council began streamed waste collection and often reuse cartons and food packaging for freezing stuff or taking my sandwiches to work etc.

 

[vickster]

Where do you keep your rubbish while waiting for the bin men to take it? Leave in same place? Get a separate box for it? You live in a house with outdoor space presumably?
Or just let the bin men take to landfill as currently

 

[IaninSheffield]

Interesting. Of the 171 stores listed on the Tesco site which offer this facility, there's not many (any?) north of Watford Gap.

 

[vickster]

Interesting. Of the 171 stores listed on the Tesco site which offer this facility, there's not many (any?) north of Watford Gap.

Plenty in Wales though

You could ask them why (although it is a pilot, and may reflect the location of recycling plants that can handle soft plastic, dunno?)

 

[Venod]

This is an Australian website, but are we all wasting water, money and time, washing our recycling.

https://theconversation.com/why-youre-almost-certainly-wasting-time-rinsing-your-recycling-78189

 

[Ridgeway]

Something that has oft worried me about the home washing of food packaging for recycling (milk cartons, food cans, foil take-away trays, glass jars, etc) is what is the environmental impact of all the extra water demand and waste water that now needs additional capacity at the sewage works?
In the Skol household some items get washed in the pots water before the sink is emptied, so no extra use there, but inevitably a not insignificant number of items get rinsed out on the go which must be a problem?

Also, if we are to start cleaning soft plastics and cling film, how practical is this? Once you have washed out your food bags, catfood pouches and cling film what do you now do with the dripping wet plastic and how do you store it for the next couple of weeks before you go to the recycling point?

I agree and refuse to wash any recycling that will become dirtier than it started out when its goes through the system and any way gets "melted down"

Mrs R would like to wash it all so i get up early in order to get all the recycling in it's various containers

 

[I like Skol]

And before anyone questions my commitment to the reduce and recycle cause

You live in a house with outdoor space presumably?
Or just let the bin men take to landfill as currently

As I hinted upthread, let's not turn this into a person attack! I don't have to defend my desire to help protect the environment.

There used to be a recycling point for carrier bags/polythene at my local Sainsbury's which I used but that was removed probably more than 10yrs ago (remember when we naively used to throw carrier bags away before they became such a valuable commodity) and there has been no publicised alternative to landfill offered since, either by local authority or retailers.
According to the latest Tesco list my nearby store isn't included in the soft plastics scheme (Not that I would shop at Tesco's anyway) so currently, despite being willing to increase my recycling this way, I do not have the means to reasonably do this. The only option currently available is to continue sending soft plastics to landfill

 

[Ming the Merciless]

I’d rather the reduce maxim applied first. I think it’s been forgotten that the three arrows stand for reduce, reuse, recycle. Recycle is the last thing to do once the other two have been exhausted.

 

[vickster]

As I hinted upthread, let's not turn this into a person attack! I don't have to defend my desire to help protect the environment.

There used to be a recycling point for carrier bags/polythene at my local Sainsbury's which I used but that was removed probably more than 10yrs ago (remember when we naively used to throw carrier bags away before they became such a valuable commodity) and there has been no publicised alternative to landfill offered since, either by local authority or retailers.
According to the latest Tesco list my nearby store isn't included in the soft plastics scheme (Not that I would shop at Tesco's anyway) so currently, despite being willing to increase my recycling this way, I do not have the means to reasonably do this. The only option currently available is to continue sending soft plastics to landfill

Post 2 and another says other supermarkets also offer.

At the local Tesco here, the recycling bin is in the entrance, no need to even go in if don't want to

 

[ColinJ]

This is great news.

I agree.

I would estimate 80+% of our household waste is of this type.

I would probably take over a year to fill my wheelie bin if my local shops (or council) recycled that kind of waste.

 

[classic33]

I agree.

I would probably take over a year to fill my wheelie bin if my local shops (or council) recycled that kind of waste.

Local council recycling rate is just over 21%? The rest, that can be, is simply incinerated.

 

[tyred]

I got a telling off from a member of staff for putting bags in the one in my local Lidl. They are only for packaging removed from food bought on the premises apparently whereas I had brought back my empty loaf bags (their brand as demonstrated to the rude dragon). I have never shopped in Lidl since that day.

 

[Drago]

You shop at Lidl?

 

[annedonnelly]

Check out Terracycle folks. There are a number of schemes for recycling packaging back to the manufacturer via local drop-off points. Including crisp packets, toothpaste tubes, cheese packaging, bread wrappers. I think there are cat food things too, but not having a cat...