Your Questions About Recycling

The Expert answers:

NO. NO. NO!

Burning ANYTHING is the worst. Garbage normally would biodegrade, and release it’s nutrients and composition in the ground. Burning it, forces it to turn into ash and fly up into the atmosphere. That’s how there’s smog.

If you can, try composting. Place the paper products in yard waste bins, or bury it in a hole somewhere.

Cardboard and sheets of paper can of course be recycled.

The Expert answers:

Look for “Ruffie” brand of garbage bags. I know they have pink and blue. They are considered recycling bags for some places.

The Expert answers:

Ive made a garbage bag dress out of 1 garbage bag, needle thread and cheetah print duct tape came out cute.all depends on what products u want to use

The Expert answers:

More power to you elbow – if only everybody acted like you!

Most ‘soft’ plastic bags are Low Density Polythene – No.4 in the chart! I just collect all these and put them in the carrier bag recycling bin at the supermarket.

Hard plastics, again I just collect these and take them to the recycling centre/tip/dump at the end of Straight Road in Colchester where there is a skip for them.

One of the difficulties with the coding system is that it was introduced by the Plastic Federation some years ago as a way of identifying what type of plastic a product had been made from. Unfortunately they saw fir to put this number in the recycling triangle to appear to us that they were environmentally friendly. In fact all they were doing was easing their collective consciouses as, at the time, there wasn’t the technology, desire or end products to recycle all plastics.

Expanded polystyrene is the hardest to recycle because there are so few collection and recycling plants in the country – the last time I looked there were only two! It is also one of the worst for volume and chemical damage.

Theoretically all plastics 1-6 can be recycled because of their chemical composition but there has to be:
– a method of collection
– the technology/plant to carry out the recycling
– products that can be made from the recycled plastic
– products people will buy

Realistically, only when there is the political will and clout to reduce the number of plastics used to only those that can readily be recycled (or use different materials) will the much maligned consumer be much clearer about their environmental responsibilities.

The Expert answers:

Paper lunch bags work great. Get the recycled kind.

As far as garbage bags, they sell biodegradable ones now, and if enough people start buying them the price will go way down. Still they’re only as expensive as the brand name trash bags anyway.

The Expert answers:

No idea…. Use.. Two garbage bags… Doesnt matter anyway. They put all garbage together when it gets burned anyway,

Kolbjoern
http://www.bestbuycamera.org

The Expert answers:

Each recycling company has different policies. It is very true that they will often throw away a whole load if it’s mixed with too much unrecyclable material, (or will fine you and refuse to pick it up from your curb) but it really depends on the company.

I think the best solution really would be to contact your recycling company. I contacted mine and they sent me a pamphlet with the exact details of what they do and don’t accept. Also, some of them have this information on their websites. This should explain how clean an item should be, and what sorts of things they don’t take.

Here are a few pieces of advice:
* You should rinse your recyclables, but there shouldn’t be any need to scrub them as clean as you would your dishes. Thirty seconds of hot water is probably more than enough for that empty can of crushed tomatoes or empty margarine tub. Most recycling centres say there should be no more than 5% food particles on the surface. Like someone else here said, it’s more an issue in attracting pests and growing mould and disease as the item waits for weeks in a pile to be processed, and not as much an issue in whether or not the big cleaning machines can clean it thoroughly enough.

* If you can remember some of the key items that they don’t take (mine doesn’t take plastic bags or plastic tubs), you can make sure to save those items aside and dispose of them elsewhere. Save up a trunk load and take them to the city recycling centre, where they will accept almost anything recyclable that commingled recycling won’t take, even old aerosol cans. You can also try to reuse items that you are unable to recycle, like margarine tubs. (http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifehack/margarine-tubs-with-clear-lids.html)

The rest of this doesn’t answer your question as much. Still I’m writing it for anyone who might be interested.

“Reduce” is better than “recycle” . . .
* Reducing is key, of course. More than anything else. Really try to avoid purchasing anything in a package. Packaging is the majority of your recycling, but sadly, much of the packaging on stuff isn’t recyclable. This is why most people have more garbage than recycling. You can start in easy ways by bringing your own reusable bags for grocery shopping, then work your way up to more involved stuff, like buying in bulk (this is where leftover margarine tubs are useful) and cooking mostly fresh foods and avoiding those prepackaged, just-add-water foodlike products. This is a little more time consuming, but it saves a load of money, so it’s well worth the effort. Also, when you buy things in packages, buy the big packages when you can, if you are going to use that much food! For example, you might want to buy the big burlap bags of basmati or jasmine rice rather than the little 1 kilo plastic bags of boring and untasty rice. This is also very cost effective.

And since “reuse” also takes precedence over “recycle” . . .
* Buy used stuff from thrift stores when you can, rather than buying new stuff. This is better for some things (like lamps and furniture) than other things (like underpants). This gets into the whole idea of recycling stuff, and not just packaging, but can save a lot of stuff from the landfill, which is kind of the whole point of recycling. And on that same point . . .

* If you break something and can’t repair it, try giving it away through your local Freecycle group before you throw it away. If someone out there with a knack for sewing upholstery will take that couch that your dog peed on and your cat scratched up, then you have just saved way more from the landfill than a month of regular household recycling could.

I hope that helped!

The Expert answers:

Sorting is ONLY done in recycling operations. Nor in trash dumps.

Generally in trash dumps, there are bulldozers that move the stuff around.
During that process, the bags get chewed up by the treads of the dozer.
Having the dozer run over the stuff compacts it.
The dozer’s main job is to spread the trash out, flatten it, and compact it, so the trucks can have a place to drive over and dump more stuff.

The Expert answers:

No doubt a whole lot! Wanna help? Use the colorful comic section of newspaper, it can be recycled afterwards, so can your wrapping paper in some places. Or put gifts in cloth bags that can later be used at the grocery stores.

For the last 3 weeks I’ve been weighing the cans, bottles, plastics, and mixed paper my husband I produce. So far the total is 19.5 lbs for glass/can/plastics and 14.5 lbs. Of mixed paper (not including newspaper b/c I’m saving for X-mas and paper mache art). That’s just 2 people for 3 weeks!