Going Greener

Absolutely!! Well said. The packaging industry has an awful lot to answer for. I remember being sent for a dozen eggs often as a kid- they were sold and placed in a paper bag!! I never dropped them!!  I went to buy a pair of pliers the other day and they were bubble wrapped in reams of plastic- what's the point? They're pliers for goodness sake!!!. All polystyrene tetrapak for fast food should be banned- there is a perfectly useable cardboard alternative- cardboard can either be burnt safely or recycled - not lie in a landfill for 1000yrs.I will only use Fish and Chip shops that either wrap in paper or use cardboard boxes now . I once asked a F&C shop why they used polystyrene containers. The answer was 'portion control' I asked what the scoop in her hand was for then? I asked for my meal just to be wrapped and not boxed. She was really put out! I explained that if the boxes had been cardboard it can be recycled - she saw my argument and agreed that she had never thought about it and that she would pass my thoughts onto the boss!  We can all do our bit for the environment- it just takes a bit of courage sometimes. 

Hear hear from here too! We seem to be going more and more towards what we want from sites.

It's as Merve says, if we, the customers, don't vote with voices and if necessary, feet, nothing will change.

Having just got back from Norfolk, I was surprised at the lack of recycling facilities. We ended up bringing our plastic/cardboard/glass home.

Many areas do not require you to sort waste as it is all processed prior to disposal. It depends on the contracts each local authority has in place with waste operators. 

The only reason some areas have adopted a household sorting system with various bins is to raise the profile of recycling. It's rarely as effective as mechanical separation but it gets people thinking about waste more. 

That's admirably conscientious, I'm impressed! When we encountered a site fairly early during a 3 week trip earlier this year which didn't offer any recycling bins, we found ourselves automatically separating stuff out, then realising, and binning it while feeling rather guilty - I confess we didn't then carry it on further round!

JayEss, does that mean that all local councils are doing recycling regardless of us sorting ? I'm feeling surprised that our local council would bother sending extra crews round in extra, specialised, vehicles, just to help us focus our minds, especially in these times of swingeing cuts, but cheered if the other places truly are recycling too.

Yes HH they are. Government targets apply to all areas but how they choose to meet them is down to each authority. Some use kerbside sorting, some use MRF facilities. 

Our area changed from a mixed recycling collection to kerbside sorting. The percentage figures look better but the volumes of recyclables collected have dropped dramatically. The crates they give us are pretty small and I've noticed an awful lot more fires under cover of darkness recently. 

The only sensible separation is glass. The last thing the paper industry want is glass mixed with paper. What do you suppose we have to put in one of our crates?

There's a MRF near me that sorts so efficiently  that you find bales of different coloured cans.  Interestingly when I visited I watched the sorted waste from our own collection being tipped on the floor and mixed up. Plants like this need truly mixed waste.  

Waste sorting by householders appeals to many and helps people feel they are recycling. They aren't recycling though. Just sorting. 

Here's a good example of a MRF 

https://youtu.be/9-omagCMvII

Interesting - thanks for that! - so the bin we fill, here at home, as non-recyclable waste maybe still gets sorted before heading to landfill? Or will our lot be relying on us to do their sorting, rather than having a plant, I wonder ? And thus all UK caravan/MH sites will have waste already going through the same machinery whether we separate out things (other than glass) or not?

What happens with your domestic waste collection depends on the individual contract the council has with the operator. All waste has to be pre treated before landfill but this can include sorting  

Caravan sites will have a commercial contract. Chances are that most of the waste from separate bins will all go on the same load to be put through a MRF.  Again it depends on the contract and that's why different sites have different requirements  

Sorting waste into different bins has done a lot to raise awareness of the need to recycle. The UK is close to the 50% target for recycling of household waste but interestingly the percentage dropped last year  If our area is anything to go by they are collecting an awful lot less recyclable materials since switching to kerbside sorting (small containers and more restrictions on what you can put in them)  Areas that collect mixed recycling seem to do better 

It's a complex industry but nobody needs to take waste home just because there isn't a suitably labelled bin 

Don't get yourselves too worried about plastic lasting virtually for ever.  I picked up yesterday one of these blocks of four 13A sockets with a lead and a plug.  Fortunately it was't powered at the time as it just fell apart and I was left holding a collection of various metal innards.

Sounds like they could have made it out of recycled plastic bags Nav!! Must have been moulded badly or the material wasn't up to it- bit worrying though!!