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BS: ASDA & the Recycling Myth
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Subject: BS: ASDA & the Recycling Myth From: Jack Blandiver Date: 29 Jul 08 - 09:15 AM Doing a bit of shopping in our local ASDA last night; check-out girl looks baffled when haven't got our own carrier bags. Would you like buy a Bag for Life? she enquires. No indeed, we reply, the regular bags will do us just fine. The response is a trained look of no uncertain disapproval, despite the plastic punnets for the mushrooms, the double wrapped yoghurts, the plastic salad bags - in fact every last damn thing in the shop is so over packaged that we need all the carrier bags we can get just to cope with the rubbish. I ask again, why is the onus for recycling put on the hapless consumer? Why produce all this non-essential crap in the first place only to make us feel guilty for throwing it away? Alternatives - The Food Weighhouse - but the last time I shopped there I mixed up the washing powder and the scone mix with disastrous results. Some of us, it would seem, are so culturally conditioned by packaging that we're quite lost without it... |
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Subject: RE: BS: ASDA & the Recycling Myth From: CarolC Date: 29 Jul 08 - 09:24 AM Sometimes the people who make the product make more money on the packaging than they do on the actual product. And that's probably why so many things are so over packaged. |
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Subject: RE: BS: ASDA & the Recycling Myth From: Jean(eanjay) Date: 29 Jul 08 - 09:25 AM Well, I've got the bag for life but keep forgetting to take it! |
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Subject: RE: BS: ASDA & the Recycling Myth From: jacqui.c Date: 29 Jul 08 - 09:28 AM A lot of the packaging is recyclable, if you have the local facility. I would guess that, to comply with hygiene regulations nowadays, as well as customer expectations, the packaging on most perishable items is legislated to some degree. Most places will have loose vegetable items if you object to extra packaging. I try to always take my own bags to the supermarket - it may not be much but I feel that I am contributing a little less to the general layer of indestructible waste that's around these days. With the price of oil going up these plastic products are also going to become more costly - what's the betting that sometime soon we will start getting charged for shop carrier bags. |
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Subject: RE: BS: ASDA & the Recycling Myth From: Jean(eanjay) Date: 29 Jul 08 - 09:31 AM We're already being charged here. Marks and Spencers do it and so does Lakeland. Lakeland also sell reusable vegetable bags that you take to the supermarket and weigh/package your veg in! |
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Subject: RE: BS: ASDA & the Recycling Myth From: GUEST,LTS pretending to work Date: 29 Jul 08 - 10:32 AM Most supermarkets have pre-packaged, pre-cut and loose, unfettered fruits and vegetables. There is a difference in price for all three options. You pays your money and you takes your choice. Better still, opt for local produce markets where the food comes unwrapped, unwashed and unprepared. LTS |
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Subject: RE: BS: ASDA & the Recycling Myth From: Mr Happy Date: 29 Jul 08 - 10:34 AM Seems to me, each latest trend - like the current 'green'/ 'global warming/ pollution' one just results in more 'alternative solutions' being produced & marketed. Par exemple, I had a recent argy bargy with Aldi who charge extra for their plastic carrier bags. I said other shops bags are free, Aldi's response being they're trying to persuade customers to use their own bags 'to protect the environment . I argued how's it protecting the environment if the bags are still being manufactured & sold ?? Another scam, I think! |
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Subject: RE: BS: ASDA & the Recycling Myth From: Wolfgang Date: 29 Jul 08 - 11:34 AM I disagree, Mr. Happy. If I get the bags for free, I'll use a new one each time. If I bring my own bags I use the same for decades. It is a welcome policy by all big shops in Germany to charge for bags in order to make customers bring their own bags. Also (answering a part of the first post), all shops in Germany have to take all the extra wrappings, paper and plastic (no, not the banana peels), back if the customer wants it. They were forced to accept that due to too many customers unwrapping the goods in the store and leaving the wrappings on the floor. Now, all shops have big marked containers (for plastic, paper, and waste) right at the checkout. Wolfgang |
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Subject: RE: BS: ASDA & the Recycling Myth From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 29 Jul 08 - 12:53 PM All plastic wrap and bags go to recycling in Calgary, Canada- if you pay for the recycling service to your house, or remember to take the plastic to the few places that have the bins for glass, plastic and paper. Meats are sold in plastic wrap, displayed on shelves, unless one buys special or expensive cuts from the butcher, then it is wrapped in butcher's paper. The city and provincial sanitation rules require wrapping of meats sold to the public, and I would hate to use meats handled indiscriminately by the public. Fruits displayed in bulk are subject to squeezing by little old ladies and their ilk, the bruises often are not discovered until one prepares the fruit for serving. There seems to be no cure for this. 'Green' bags are troublesome; fruits and vegetables get mixed with cans, cakes and pies (pre-wrapped) tip and scramble when the usually careless packer at check-out crams your purchases into your bags. Packers always fill the 'green' bags to the point that they are too heavy, and contents compress together. If one remonstrates, one receives dirty looks; for some reason packers are much more careful if the plastic is used. One chain here lets the customer pack his purchases at check-out, but often there is a slowpoke at the end, and articles pile up and get jumbled, or tempers fray. Very unpleasant. |
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Subject: RE: BS: ASDA & the Recycling Myth From: GUEST,leeneia Date: 29 Jul 08 - 12:55 PM from the first post: 'I ask again, why is the onus for recycling put on the hapless consumer?' History is repeating itself. When the environmental movement first took off in the 1970's, big business etc managed to defuse it by pointing the finger at individuals. In effect saying, 'Why are you complaining about our effluent when you yourself throw away the tabs off of soda pop cans?' Amazingly, it worked. People fret about bags. Meanwhile, how much is wasted by: a movie which cost millions to make and which bombed? the entire NASCAR industry? professional sports? over air conditioning? At my husband's company, most of the women wear sweaters because the building's so cold even though it's 95 out. corporate and professional cultures which require suits and ties in the office, which then require lots of a/c to make the summer bearable. |
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Subject: RE: BS: ASDA & the Recycling Myth From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 29 Jul 08 - 01:15 PM One chain here lets the customer pack his purchases at check-out, What a strange idea to have it that way round. All the supermarkets I've ever known they ask if you you want any help packing, but most times people don't seem to want it. |
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Subject: RE: BS: ASDA & the Recycling Myth From: PoppaGator Date: 29 Jul 08 - 01:32 PM Bringing your own grocery bags is still optional, rare, and considered a bit "quirky" in the US ~ in my area, anyway. I've read articles and seen TV-news features about how it has recently been enforced in Europe (and particularly in Ireland) and been surprisingly well accepted, surprisingly quickly. I began doing so a few months back, when reusable bags were first introduced by the more expensive specialty organic grocers in this area. When I brought my bags to other "regular" supermarkets, I got quizzical reactions at first from checkout personnel and other shoppers. Since then, a few more stores have begun selling/providing reusable bags and the practice is gradually catching on. As a teenager, I worked as a bagboy and have always prided myself on being able to pack a set of standard paper grocery bags properly, apportioning the heaviest items to the bottoms of several bags to keep weights manageable and roughly equal, keeping fragile items on top, etc. Over the years, I'd often pack my own bags when no one else was available to assist the checkout person. When the small plastic bags came into vogue, the bagger's job was all but eliminated; checkers were expected to drop each item into a bag, which is easily done with the little plastic bags in their dispenser rigs, but not so easily when the customer is allowed to specify "paper," and does so. What I've hated all along about the plastic bags, and the general bagging practices since their introduction, even when the paper-bag alterntaive is in effect, is the NUMBER of bags used up. It is not at all unusual to purchase four or five items and be presented with four or five little bags to take them home in, one item per bag. With the built-in handles of the plastic bags, it's not difficult to grab a handful and carry them, but it's just so damn wasteful and stupid. With the large-ish (paper-bag-sized) and heavy-duty reusable bags, there is an occasional tendency to pack 'em extra-heavy. I can live with that, but I can see how someone less able-bodied might have a complaint. One local supermarket chain that just began selling their own reusable grocery bags is providing smaller such bags than I've seen before ~ the size of the ubiquitous plastic bags ~ for 99 cents each. That seems to be a good idea, and might well be the wave of the future. The checkout workers like them because they fit in the same recess of the counter that is designed for the disposable plastic bags. I haven't bought any, because I already have three of the larger-size reuable bags and don't need any more. |
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Subject: RE: BS: ASDA & the Recycling Myth From: PoppaGator Date: 29 Jul 08 - 01:35 PM Oh yeah, also: Use of non-disposable bags by customers won't immeidately reduce production of throwaway plastic bags, but it WILL, and in fact already DOES, gradually reduce demand, which is the ONLY way wasteful production of this wasteful product will ever be reduced and, perhasps someday, eliminated: GRADUALLY. Every litter bit helps... |
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Subject: RE: BS: ASDA & the Recycling Myth From: CarolC Date: 29 Jul 08 - 01:37 PM Walmart has a revolving bag dispenser/holder that holds bags open while the checkout person loads the items directly into them from the conveyor thingie, and holds the bags until the customer takes them off and puts them into their cart. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/images/business/july-dec04/walmart_checkout.jpg Walmart has started selling the re-usable bags, though. It will be interesting to see how the checkout people deal with the re-usable bags. So far, I haven't seen anyone use them. I don't, myself, because I use plastic grocery bags as trash can liners. That seems to make a lot more sense and to be a lot less wasteful than buying trash can liners just so I can throw them out. |
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Subject: RE: BS: ASDA & the Recycling Myth From: Rapunzel Date: 29 Jul 08 - 01:38 PM If I ever take reusable bags, I'll take fabric bags - the plastic 'bags for life' are a complete con which they guilt trip you into buying because you've forgotten to bring the ones you bought last week - so instead of the small thin plastic carrier bags you end up with just as many large, thick bags which are more costly to make and cause more waste. I agree with leeneia - there's a whole lot more money and resources being wasted on other things. And Mr Happy is dead right :"I argued how's it protecting the environment if the bags are still being manufactured & sold ??" If these companies really cared about waste/recycling/environment, etc they wouldn't provide any bags at all or they would issue pre-used bags. But mostly I don't take my own bags as my husband likes making a point at the checkout (see 1st post) |
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Subject: RE: BS: ASDA & the Recycling Myth From: GUEST,number 6 Date: 29 Jul 08 - 01:47 PM I agree with leeneia also - and yes there's a whole lot more money and resources being wasted on other things. but but, using your own bags (and bins as we do) is a start and one more action to prevent mass waste and no ... they are certainly not a con. biLL |
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Subject: RE: BS: ASDA & the Recycling Myth From: Big Al Whittle Date: 29 Jul 08 - 02:12 PM Does the life expectancy of a Bag for Life exceed the life expectancy of an infantry Lieutenant in the trenches? does anybody remember the Jim Broadbent/Judy Dench performance in Iris, when they visit the supermarket? |
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Subject: RE: BS: ASDA & the Recycling Myth From: CarolC Date: 29 Jul 08 - 02:14 PM I'm not sure if I'm understanding exactly what's meant by using one's own bins, but if that means using one's own trash cans for the trash removal people to dump the contents of into their trucks, we don't have that option where we live. We are required to used the bins provided by the city. Which I can understand, since they are specially made so they can be hoisted up by a mechanism made for that purpose on the trash removal truck. However, I agree that recycling as much as possible in order to keep the amount of refuse to be hauled away to a minimum is the way to go. |
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Subject: RE: BS: ASDA & the Recycling Myth From: GUEST,number 6 Date: 29 Jul 08 - 02:30 PM Hey Carol ... by bins I mean green plastic carrying bins ... for carting home your groceries in ... take the place of let's say, 3 to 4 of those permanent bags. and yes weelittledrummer,these green bins have a much longer life of an infantry Lieutenant in the trenches ... good one :) biLL |
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Subject: RE: BS: ASDA & the Recycling Myth From: CarolC Date: 29 Jul 08 - 02:57 PM The bins sound like a very good idea. |
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Subject: RE: BS: ASDA & the Recycling Myth From: PoppaGator Date: 29 Jul 08 - 03:29 PM If I forget my reusable bags, I don't buy more, I just ask for paper bags (usually), or occasionally plastic if I'm ready for a six-month supply of wastebasket liners. (Most of our trash receptacles are much too large to be fitted with grocery-size plastic bags, but a few small ones accommodate those little bags.) So I still accumulate collections of plastic and brown-paper bags; I just don't collect as many as before, and not nearly so quickly. Of course, the bags we use to transport groceries from store to car (or bus) to home are not the only instances of wasteful packaging, but it's something we can do something about. And it's not all that difficult or expensive. Just don't worry about it if you occasionally fail to comply! |
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Subject: RE: BS: ASDA & the Recycling Myth From: Liz the Squeak Date: 29 Jul 08 - 04:44 PM I've just come back from Tesco's where I bought a new small back pack for myself and Limpit. The cashier asked if I wanted a bag to put them in... Go figure. LTS |
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Subject: RE: BS: ASDA & the Recycling Myth From: Bill D Date: 29 Jul 08 - 05:54 PM Our county has been doing serious recycling for years....and just this month they have added to the **PLASTIC** items that can be put in the bin. All plastic grocery bags are supposed to be recycled...as well as the bags the newspaper is delivered in.....I take a batch over ever couple of months. As to grocery bags, I have 6-7 cloth/fiber bags that I usually take, 4 of which I have had for several years. I get 2-3 cents credit each time, so they have been paid for. One store, Trader Joe's, offers paper bags with handles OR offers a credit for reusable bags. The paper bags are useful for recycling the newspapers and small cardboard items, which go into a container with other paper items. We now recycle 95%+ of paper items. Two of my reusable bags are insulated for frozen foods...and today I used one of those and a large picnic cooler with "blue ice" to protect my frozen foods from 90° temps. So...it IS getting better on the recycling front in some areas. |
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Subject: RE: BS: ASDA & the Recycling Myth From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 29 Jul 08 - 06:13 PM I try to take a blue Ikea bag along and bung everything in that. One way and another in the UK they seem to be working at making people feel embarrassed when they ask for new bags at the check out. They haven't yet gone the Irish way, with a small tax charge on every plastic bag, but I imagine that'll come if enough people don't do it voluntarily. The real enemy in this context is excessive and unnecessary packaging. Particularly the sort where you need a tool kit to remove it - which makes it tricky to take it off in store and dump it. |
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Subject: RE: BS: ASDA & the Recycling Myth From: The Fooles Troupe Date: 29 Jul 08 - 07:26 PM "Well, I've got the bag for life but keep forgetting to take it!" Well don't put it over your head! "If I get the bags for free, I'll use a new one each time." "I use plastic grocery bags as trash can liners." Actually I just hang one up, fill it, tie it, and place in trash can. We used to have similar commercial items for the same purpose, and they were 40-50 c each, so go figure! :-) |
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Subject: RE: BS: ASDA & the Recycling Myth From: Mr Happy Date: 30 Jul 08 - 07:00 AM ..............reading with interest all comments but still feeling it's a con by various vested interests to have the opportunity to cash in on 'greenness' & produce even more saleable items. After all, why is it that my local authority issues householders with extra plastic binsacks, green for cans, plastic bottles etc, pink for card & paper? Surely it'd be 'greener' to have a reuseable bin to deposit this stuff, as is issued for garden waste & glass scrap |
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Subject: RE: BS: ASDA & the Recycling Myth From: Bill D Date: 30 Jul 08 - 10:51 AM Mr. Happy...it's a cost-benefit analysis. It may help some folks to think and sort properly. Besides...'some' of the plastic bags are now recyclable/bio-degradeable themselves. Still, you ARE correct that the less 'stuff' in the system, the better for us all. You might contact your local authority to see what they say about reasoning. |
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Subject: RE: BS: ASDA & the Recycling Myth From: heric Date: 30 Jul 08 - 11:55 AM We dog owners need one of those plastic bags per day for obvious reasons. That's a LOT of plastic bags. Cheap degradable substitutes should be on the way so that we don't keep counteracting Poppagator's good efforts, but I'm not aware of them. |
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Subject: RE: BS: ASDA & the Recycling Myth From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 30 Jul 08 - 12:03 PM Here you are heric - biodegradeable dog poo bags 3p a bag. |
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Subject: RE: BS: ASDA & the Recycling Myth From: heric Date: 30 Jul 08 - 12:07 PM and with scented ties! I'm in. |
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Subject: RE: BS: ASDA & the Recycling Myth From: heric Date: 30 Jul 08 - 12:19 PM A lot of people deride the biodgradability claims for plastic in the US, and the science looks a bit complicated. Some claim that they fall apart into small pieces but do not fully degrade, others say they introduce pollutants. Does anyone know the "truth" on this subject? |
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Subject: RE: BS: ASDA & the Recycling Myth From: heric Date: 30 Jul 08 - 12:31 PM . . . or, more specifically, which products should be preferred at the moment? |
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Subject: RE: BS: ASDA & the Recycling Myth From: GUEST,Geoff the Duck Date: 31 Jul 08 - 01:14 PM When we fist had Supermarkets for the big weekly shop (Mid 1970s onwards)there was always a big stack of cardboard boxes and fruit trays near the checkouts. We packed into boxes and put them in the back of dad's van. The system worked perfectly. Usually dad kept the empty boxes in the van ready for another shop. Nowadays they won't let you use them, so they go in skips at the back of the store. A standard "small" shop for our family can fill anything from six to fifteen carrier bags, which are so thin and badly made that anything with corners (cereal boxes etc.) rip the bags so they are not fit to use again. Often they don't even survivre being lifted out of the car at the home end of the journey. Sometimes they son't even reach the trolley. As for bottl;ed drinks. WQe used to pay a deposit on the bottle and get it back when the bottle was returned. Now all we can do is throw them out. Recycling is mainly based on lies. The only sensible fate for an unbroken bottle is to wash and refill. Smashing them up, melting them again and remoulding into another bottle just adds to global warming. Quack! GtD. |
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Subject: RE: BS: ASDA & the Recycling Myth From: Bee Date: 31 Jul 08 - 02:13 PM Halifax Regional Municipality, NS Here, we have a system in place that includes composting by the municipality. We each were issued a huge green compost bin into which goes (if you don't keep a compost yourself) any scraps from vegetables, meat, fish, used cooking oils and other fats, boxboard (cereal boxes and the like), yard trimmings. They advise wrapping meat/fish scraps in one sheet of newspaper, or in a boxboard box. The municipality collects it every two weeks, and sells the compost. Along with that, a bluebag for milk cartons, glass and plastic containers, plastic bags, egg cartons, cans. Newspapers and corrugated cardboard tied in string separately. Green bag for what little garbage is left. Soft drink containers are returnable - we pay a deposit. Grocery stores still have free plastic bags, but for several years also carry 99c cloth bags which fit the same bag holder at the checkout as the plastic ones do. The checkout people here seem better trained than those mentioned above - they are very careful usually with packing and distributing weight per bag. They also usually pack anything drippy or toxic in a plastic bag, so there are still enough bags for lining trash cans or whatever at home. Usually customers will do some of the packing to speed things up. I've often had to carry my groceries a good distance, so i love the cloth bags - they're strong and have comfortable handles, long enough that you can even sling one over your shoulder if necessary. |
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Subject: RE: BS: ASDA & the Recycling Myth From: Mr Happy Date: 05 Aug 08 - 07:07 AM GtD's examples above concur with my reasoning in the area of containers for fluids. As he states, in the 'good old days' bottles in particular were deposited & returnable to be re-used. So many containers are produced these days that even when emptied could readily be re-used instead've ' recycled ' . To my mind its really daft & self defeating to the ethos of 'greenness' to crush up used glass, plastic, metal containers, in order to remake them. Considering all the extra energy & resources wasted to accomplish this, surely it'd be far better just to cleanse & re-use them. |
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Subject: RE: BS: ASDA & the Recycling Myth From: Paul Burke Date: 05 Aug 08 - 08:07 AM That's all very well, Mijnheer Gelukkig, but I know a certain person who insists on recycling EVERYTHING, she won't throw a thing away. Everything has to be re-used. Yoghurt pots as plant pots. Vegetable trays to start seeds off in. Old newspapers are boiled down to a sort of grey porridge, which is then mixed with denatured potato peelings and served up as "kedgeree". Plastic carrier bags are stuffed with the contents of the vacuum cleaner, stuck together, and used as duvets. The furniture is made entirely of used matchsticks glued together, and chairs are upholstered with fluff extracted from the washing machine filter. And this at a time when pathetic parades of redundant dustmen beg pitifully for charity in the streets. |
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Subject: RE: BS: ASDA & the Recycling Myth From: Peace Date: 05 Aug 08 - 08:16 AM Just imagine the treasure troves that archaeologists will find when they locate garbage dumps in two hundred years. |
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Subject: RE: BS: ASDA & the Recycling Myth From: Mr Happy Date: 05 Aug 08 - 08:31 AM PMB, Since you're casting nasturtiums at me, your monogramme de guerre = Private Member's Bill! [or alternatively 'Private Bill's Member??] ********** I too re-use some plastic packaging for horticultural purposes, but the gist of my |
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Subject: RE: BS: ASDA & the Recycling Myth From: Joe Offer Date: 05 Aug 08 - 04:44 PM California has been quite successful with a beverage container deposit, so now the California State Legislature is considering a levy of a deposit on food containers. I can agree with the beverage bottle deposit because it helps clear litter from the countryside, but collecting the deposit is a darn hassle; so a lot of it goes uncollected and ends up in somebody's pocket - even though the bottle may have been disposed of in a recycling bin. OK, so now they want to collect deposits on ketchup bottles and jelly jars, even though I haven't seen a lot of jelly jars along the highway. What I do see in my garbage can are lots of class 6 and styrofoam and mixed-product food containers that are questionably recyclable, and it's really hard to determine what can and cannot be recycled. Instead of anohter deposit (which is really a hidden tax), the legislators need to force producers to use containers that are easily recycled. At least, that's what I think. Too bad the legislators don't listen to me. They sure as hell listen to Big Business. -Joe- By the way, I wondered what ASDA was, and Wikipedia came to the rescue:
Asda is Wal-Mart's largest non-U.S. subsidiary, accounting for almost half of the company's international sales. As of January 2006, there were 21 Asda/Wal-Mart Supercentres, 243 Asda superstores, 37 Asda supermarkets (including town centres), 5 Asda Living stores, 10 George clothing stores and 24 depots (distribution centres) - 340 in total. Asda has 150,000 employees, who it refers to as "colleagues" (90,000 part-time, 60,000 full-time). The company is also engaged in property development through its subsidiary company, Gazeley Properties Limited. As a wholly owned division of Wal-Mart, Asda is not required to declare quarterly or half-yearly earnings. It submits full accounts to Companies House each October. |
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Subject: RE: BS: ASDA & the Recycling Myth From: Liz the Squeak Date: 05 Aug 08 - 04:48 PM At least MuckDonalds have switched to cardboard cartons rather than the old styrofoam ones - they were an abomination. I'd be happy if I never saw another 3ft long strand of plastic wrapping bouncing along the side of the road... we've wound many a one round the axle of the car because we've not been able to avoid it. LTS |
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Subject: RE: BS: ASDA & the Recycling Myth From: GUEST,number 6 Date: 05 Aug 08 - 05:27 PM "I thought the UK wasn't plagued by Big Wally." The world is plagued by Walmart Joe. biLL |
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Subject: RE: BS: ASDA & the Recycling Myth From: mouldy Date: 06 Aug 08 - 05:15 AM My daughter works as a pharmacist for Asda (and incidentally, their head office is here in Yorkshire). Although of course they do sell the same pre-packaged stuff as all the others, the bulk packaging, and all the other recyclable stuff from the stores is put back into the empty delivery lorries and returned to their recycling depot (next to their warehouse near Junction 31 of the M62). How they then deal with it, I can't say, but at least they aren't running empty wagons. It may be that most of the supermarkets do this now. I don't often shop in there as I have other supermarkets closer, but I was in on Monday, and many people were using their own bags (as was I), with ample opportunity to buy proper bags. I don't know why they stopped leaving boxes out - they all used to do it - maybe it was considered a safety risk by the health and safety gnomes. Andrea |
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Subject: RE: BS: ASDA & the Recycling Myth From: The Fooles Troupe Date: 06 Aug 08 - 06:35 AM I can remember when we Aussies used to have the empty cardboard boxes dumped in a pile at the front of the store to pack our groceries in. There was almost always a couple of floating 'packers' who excelled at fitting the stuff into an appropriate sized box or two. But when those plastic bags came in, the boxes were taken out the back where they are collapsed, and the floor space reused. Of course, in those days, if you had a big run, then you used to just get the boxes delivered - used to be for free (you took the frozen stuff with you), but gradually delivery charges came in, till now the charge is too much for everybody, so you just dump the bags in the trolley, and wheel that home, leaving it on the street corner! BTW, those trolleys are VERY expensive! I can't see why we can't just dump the groceries straight into the trolley which we are taking to our car anyway... and then we leave that lying around in the car park for others to run into... |
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Subject: RE: BS: ASDA & the Recycling Myth From: Santa Date: 06 Aug 08 - 08:50 AM Reuse glass bottle/containers rather than recycle - that doesn't work because it costs too much. We (big public we) will not pay more for the product, but even if we would the energy costs of trucking glass bottles around, sorting, cleaning, sending back to original manufacturer and relabelling etc is higher than just making new ones. |
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Subject: RE: BS: ASDA & the Recycling Myth From: Paul Burke Date: 06 Aug 08 - 09:30 AM The cost of taking 1kg of glass back to the original seller must be less than taking the same 1kg to a recycling plant, to a bottle manufatcurere and then the new bottle to the seller. The hygiene and logistics are more to the point, but if bottles were standardised the process would be recycling plant -> sort and clean ->market to all sellers, with a (hopefully smaller) loop via remanufacture for damaged bottles. There has to be some incentive to keep the bottles intact- a deposit (compulsory) would cover this. I think the Pubic would swallow a deposit easier than a tax... Though I'm not entirely sure bottles are the worst of our problems, as recycling them is more to avoid landfill than to conserve on raw materials and energy. |
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Subject: RE: BS: ASDA & the Recycling Myth From: Mr Happy Date: 06 Aug 08 - 10:00 AM Years back there was a great litter prob caused from the detachable ring pulls from aluminium drinks cans. Thankfully, the cans rings are still attached when the can's opened. But what of the cans themselves? I don't know which costs more to produce, given the choice of metal or plastic containers, but since other kinds of pressurised drinks are marketed in plastic, I guess of the 2, these'd lend 'emselves better to recyclability or even re-use via cleansing/refilling. Also glass bottles could be limited for wines etc, as larger volumes are often sold in cardboard boxes. |
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Subject: RE: BS: ASDA & the Recycling Myth From: Stilly River Sage Date: 06 Aug 08 - 10:51 AM My village is an enclave of Fort Worth, and it doesn't recycle but the city of Fort Worth does. I have a copy of my ex's water bill with me in the pickup and every week or two I take my glass, plastic, and metal to the FW trash and recycling center near us. Most FW city residents get bins to put at the curb with commingled recyclables, but they also have the option to take it to this place, along with bulky waste. You can also drop off unwanted electronics there. None of these programs recycles fibre from clothing or furniture, etc, so a big opportunity is missed there. I take aluminum cans to the village city hall; our park department recycles them for funding. And the village has a paper recycler that also accepts corrugated cardboard. Corrugated cardboard is actually a profitable material to recycle. Many years ago when I was first looking at it for a volunteer program the rate was $400 a ton. I'm sure it has gone up. Most grocery stores here (Texas, anyway) have contracts with recycling companies to pick up the cardboard, but I think anything else discarded (food spoiled in containers goes straight in the trash to the dump. Most stores still offer flimsy plastic grocery bags, but even the discount places are now selling cloth reusable bags. I've had some since the early 1990s that are still going strong. When I shop at Sam's Club (the Walmart warehouse) I always use one of their discarded boxes that are placed up fromt for groceries to be packed in. If cardboard isn't carted out the door by customers then it goes in the recycle bin out back. Here at the house vegetable/fruit waste goes in the compost. Meat waste still goes in the trash (it is a nuisance with my dogs or wild animals otherwise). I usually have a very small amount of trash each week. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: ASDA & the Recycling Myth From: Mr Happy Date: 06 Aug 08 - 07:02 PM SRS, Aye. your mention of food waste takes me back to schooldays when, after school dinners were all over, the 'swill' lorries would come around to take away big bins of left overs. They'd go to all schools & other institutions in the town collecting food waste. It'd be processed for feeding pigs. Nowadays, due to H&S etc -nanny state - its not allowed so all that stuff goes straight to landfill - outrageous waste! |
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Subject: RE: BS: ASDA & the Recycling Myth From: The Fooles Troupe Date: 06 Aug 08 - 07:44 PM "I think the Pubic would swallow a deposit" OOOOOOOOOoo, Run Away! |
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Subject: RE: BS: ASDA & the Recycling Myth From: Liz the Squeak Date: 07 Aug 08 - 03:22 AM Oddly enough, our local council has recently sent round guidelines to what we can and can't recycle in our ordinary bins.... corrugated or 'heavy' cardboard is not one of the recycleable items, yet seems to make up at least 30% of the total waste collected and is one of the more profitable and easiest materials to process. Go figure. LTS |
