Just had another email from Wickes. Still no, but sounding much more proactive than B&Q did and saying they'd like to keep me informed of any progress... I wonder if the Waitrose no-packaging trial that's been all over the news this morning has prompted them?
'If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.'
Unfortunately most are black inside, they can’t recycle black plastic. I use them for rubbish, I’ve never bought black dustbin bags. We only use one a fortnight so there should be a lifetimes supply in our shed. Spring bulbs are put in them , compost as well so the can die down naturally. Storing spare home made compost. Lining hanging baskets.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
1 tonne building merchants' bags are constantly changing hands on Freecycle. Don't know how I managed before I had mine. I filled it when I shrank the rockery, emptied it when I built raised beds, filled it again when I replaced half the soil in a border with peat (bog-friendly) to grow azaleas, and expect to empty it again in the course of re-furbishing my lawn, and will probably fill several when I dig my new pond.
Unfortunately most are black inside, they can’t recycle black plastic.
It's not that it can't be recycled, it's because the machines that sort plastic into different types for recycling can't recognise it. But that's for roadside recycling collections, primarily. Supermarket bag (etc) collections are not necessarily the same. Though obviously reducing and reusing has to come first!
'If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.'
I just meant that 'can't' is not the same as 'isn't' - ie: lots of black plastic is actually marked as being of the right type for recycling, so it *can* be recycled, but most roadside collection arrangements send stuff to be sorted by machines that can't recognise it, so it *isn't* recycled. Similarly, you can't generally put carrier bags, bread bags etc in roadside recycling, but you can send them back to the supermarket, as they have their own recycling arrangements which work differently. I'm not saying for sure that supermarkets do recycle compost bags, but that the roadside and supermarket arrangements are not the same. Compost bags are generally stretchy. And this (below) does not distinguish between black plastic bags and others.
'If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.'
Government have been absurdly slow about getting the tech together (investing) in recycling facilities. We were campaigning for this twenty years ago and just met with shrugs. Every council across the country seems to have different rules for what they think can be recycled or not. My own council cannot agree with its own outsourcing company about what can be taken and both give different lists. Surely it's not beyond the wit of humankind to get its act together and put some serious money into developing the tech to take recycling seriously. If you can 3D print a kidney, surely you can recycle plastics properly.
Indeed. I'm part of a local group that is being way more proactive than previous efforts have been, and really trying to dig down into the what, where, how etc of making sure we genuinely recycle everything we can (after reducing and reusing, of course, which is the focus of most of the activity) but dear god it's complicated. And it really shouldn't be.
'If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.'
LG, yes, so, so complicated. I have regularly quizzed my local waste centre and recycling centre and nobody there seems to know what happens. They just shrug and whisper that it all goes to landfill. I say our local area doesn't use landfill as part of their waste plan. We don't have a landfill facility. They look at me blankly.
There's a lot of obligation to meet EU targets (I suspect) and bugger all interest nationally. As with the rest of the eco agenda, the politicians, civil servants and council workers seem to mostly not have the first clue as to why it might be important. They are just ticking boxes.
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I use them for rubbish, I’ve never bought black dustbin bags. We only use one a fortnight so there should be a lifetimes supply in our shed.
Spring bulbs are put in them , compost as well so the can die down naturally.
Storing spare home made compost.
Lining hanging baskets.
Compost bags are generally stretchy. And this (below) does not distinguish between black plastic bags and others.