Monday 10 October 2011

Plastic Recycling

Plastic recycling is confusing. For a start there's all the different recycling numbers stamped on the plastic & then you have to figure out where to take each piece to recycle it. In addition to this every geographical area seems to have a totally different attitude towards plastic recycling. Our bin men will collect plastic bottles to recycle but not plastic containers or stretchy plastic.

At the moment we're trying to shop locally & reduce our supermarket shop to a bulk buy every few weeks. So our increasingly less frequent trips to the supermarket now involve trying to remember to take...
  • the shopping list (we have one on the side of the fridge so that the person who uses the last of something adds it to the list)
  • our own bags (easy as we leave them in the boot of the car)
  • the bag of plastic containers to recycle
  • the bag of stretchy plastic to recycle
  • the empty washing-up-liquid bottles to refill if we're going past the place that does refills.

large milk ice cube

Recently these bags of milk have been on special offer in all the local supermarkets so we bought lots & froze them. Then an accompanying jug (jug-it) was being heavily 'encouraged'. We deliberated but when, back in July, it was on special offer at 1p, we caved in & bought it.


The idea is that you put the plastic bag of milk in, secure with a clip thingy & then pierce it with the plunger thingy. Mr TH is pretty good at this, I am terrible. When I assemble the jug-it, milk sprays everywhere, I get annoyed & have to resort to decanting all of it into a real jug.

My Granny milk jug cover

But, I know that I am still saving packaging & money as the plastic bag can be washed & recycled.

Recycling all of our plastic where possible, has also made us realise just how much plastic rubbish we accumulate every few weeks. 

So my next aim is to reduce our plastic waste even more (& learn how to put a bag of milk in a jug-it!)...

11 comments:

noknittedknickers said...

I've been fantasising about a milkman delivering my milk when I go home. Good to know it comes in plastic bags now! C.x

Thrifty Household said...

...sorry to spoil your fantasies!

Claire said...

There's no such thing as the milk baggie here (I love the look of it), and where I am, no milkman either. We're supposed to live in a very eco-friendly bit of Australia, but it seems it only applies to certain things and not others.

I like the little foldy bags you can clip on your handbag, because I have the memory of a sieve. I seem to recall there was a pattern for them online somewhere.
Claire
x

Anonymous said...

Gawd, I hope I never have to wrangle one of those milk bags! It's bad enough trying to get the foil seal off a plastic milk bottle - I have very little grip. Our Council will recycle most plastics, except lids for some reason; they have to go into landfill. They also take foil containers and used (washed) kitchen foil.

Calico Kate said...

I haven't seen these our local Co-op don't do them. However I remember coming up to Scotland on holiday camping and the campsites used to have small white bags with a pint of milk in. Mum would allocate a 'special' orange plastic jug for milk purposes. Haven't seen these for Years but it would have saved on space in the campsite shops.
We always have milk in the freezer I get quite worried when we haven't! It is such a useful ingredient, I couldn't ever be a vegan!
All our recycling has to be taken to the tip as no-one collects anything here but paper. But it is astonishing just how much plastic there is in our shopping bags even if I try not to buy it seems to creep in! I wonder why there isn't any consistency across the country. We can't recycle bag type plastic at all.
CKx

litlove said...

I get really confused by the different kinds of plastic - stretchy and non-stretchy as you sensibly explained it. I am also easily confused by the routine of our bin men - recycling once every two weeks, black bin rubbish once every two weeks - and always seem to be out of synch. It makes me feel great to reduce our throwaway packaging so I wish I were clearer on what goes where!

Scented Sweetpeas said...

We go through so many milk bottles :-( I did want to get glass milk bottle delivered to our door but although it is a lovely romantic notion whilst the kiddies are at home it is far to expensive as I buy organic milk as they drink so much of it. I do recycle all the bottles and try and use them for other things too but would prefer not to use them in the first place. GGrr to plastic! Also when shopping for veg I buy loose if possible and don't bag it just stick the price sticker directly on it - it is amazing how till workers seem confused at me doing that for some reason.

Sally said...

Love your milk jug cover!

dottycookie said...

Maybe your council will follow South Cambs soon and start collecting plastic milk cartons? I have to say, while I struggle to find space for 3 wheelie bins, and I HATE the smell of the green one now they tell us we have to put cooked food in it too (yuk), our black waste bin could easily go a month between collections as we can recycle virtually everything now.

Thrifty Household said...

Our council do collect plastic bottles, tins, paper, glass, compostables & batteries & have done for quite some time (but not the containers that you get meat, yoghurt, some fruit & veg in, etc...those we have to take along to a special recycling place) We've been using the milk bags to try & cut down even further on plastic packaging...

Anonymous said...

Typical use could be a coke bottle may be remade and eventually become a fleece vogue jacket.
Pa Rolls Scrap From USA

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