Plastic Recycling In Sheffield - Worth Doing?

[HeHasRisen]

4 minutes ago, saywhatnow said:

I wouldn't be surprised if that 10% is people putting the wrong plastics in the brown bin, it should only be plastic bottles that go in the brown bin in Sheffield 

This is poorly worded, tins/cans/glass can also go in the brown bin. 

 

 

 

 

[saywhatnow]

4 hours ago, HeHasRisen said:

This is poorly worded, tins/cans/glass can also go in the brown bin. 

 

 

 

 

Indeed. I meant the only plastic that should go in the brown bin is plastic bottles

Edited May 30, 2023 by saywhatnow

[redruby]

6 hours ago, saywhatnow said:

I wouldn't be surprised if that 10% is people putting the wrong plastics in the brown bin, it should only be plastic bottles that go in the brown bin in Sheffield 

Probably.  There’s a lot of ‘wish cycling’ of low grade plastics used in food packaging.  Well meant but unfortunately not recyclable (in Sheffield anyway). 

[Longcol]

8 hours ago, davesman&van said:

That was good timing, just had a response from Veolia...

 

In Sheffield it is Council policy to only collect food packaging from designated bins at bring sites, such as those at supermarkets. The recycling is then collected and taken to a Materials Recovery Facility in Derbyshire where it is sorted for recycling. Individual materials are then sent on for further processing and recycling, where they are made into new materials and products. Every effort is made to ensure that only acceptable materials are put into the recycling bins that we collect, but there will always be a proportion of materials collected that aren't recyclable and are therefore treated as waste, although this is less than 10%. The fluctuating markets for recycled materials can make it difficult to ensure that they are recycled in the most environmentally sustainable way, and this is particularly true of less valuable materials like low-grade plastic packaging, but all recycling collected is sent for recycling. The only plastic packaging that is the exception to this, is black plastic such as supermarket meat trays, and our advice to residents is to put these in your black bins as there is no current way to recycle them.

Thanks for this, very helpful and will double check re: the black plastic over here.

[hackey lad]

I may get told of for this but if it’s plastic it goes in my recycling bin . If Veolia want it fair enough, if they don’t, they can get rid of it. 

[redruby]

6 hours ago, hackey lad said:

I may get told of for this but if it’s plastic it goes in my recycling bin . If Veolia want it fair enough, if they don’t, they can get rid of it. 

Just put plastic bottles (and tin cans /glass bottles) in the brown bin.

Everything else should go it the black bin - that includes plastic food packaging (things like packaging for fruit/veg, yoghurt pots, margarine tubs, ready meals, takeaways)
Personally I don’t think of it in terms of it being ‘Veolia’s job’ to sort it out if I couldn’t be bothered to take responsibility for sort my waste into the correct bins. I see it as doing my own tiny bit for the environment by doing the very basic job of putting recyclable and non-recyclable items in different bins. Maybe I’m wrong and I’m just doing their work for them and everything gets incinerated anyway but it’s really not a difficult thing to do.

 

Edited May 31, 2023 by redruby