Our local recycling centre in Kent has separate skips for wood and metal, however paper and plastic all go in the same one. Why do they allow you to do that if it was really going to be recycled? I assume since they are both light materials, it might just be a way of getting us to sort rubbish so it can crushed maybe and then taken more easily to the landfill sites. All very depressing if true!
2006-09-12 22:20:24 · 10 answers · asked by Anna 1 in Environment
It is partly true, e.g., "plastics recycling", you may find that, in fact, most of the plastics are landfilled because 1) sorting them is rather expensive 2) recycling them is a fairly toxic process, unless expensive filtering is employed and 3) they are often contaminated with food, paints, oils, cosmetics, various chemicals etc. and pre-washing makes the cost of the recyclate prohibitive and so it is cheaper to buy granulated, "virgin" plastics.
Having said that, most traffic cones are made of recycled carrier bags - though, if you listen to Machinehead, they are actually alien invaders who breed like rabbits!
(NEVER stack traffic ones, else the next day you WILL FIND THEIR PROGENY IS TAKING OVER YOUR STREET!)
Glass, aluminum & steel cans, paper, car, cardboard, on the other hand, are rutinely recycled.
2006-09-13 19:44:46 · answer #1 · answered by tmuk55 3 · 2⤊ 0⤋
i wouldnt know aout the UK, but in germany that is the fact.
the reason is very simple. although the different materials are separated and cleaned, ready for the projected industrial re-use... no one wants them. because no one has any idea what to do with them... first problem is that you are not allowed to make foodpackaging from recycled material... you can in fact make the do often cited park bench... but it costs about three times as much as the normal kind made of wooden planks on a frame of steel or concrete.
which means, no one wants to buy them. not even the government...
the only material that gets reused to some degree is paper, but there is still a huge excess, which in one case that has become popular by a TV report, get sshipped to africa where it is heaped up in the middle of the sahara.
i am pretty sure the answer about having it shipped to china and burned there is not far from the truth either.
2006-09-12 23:29:52 · answer #2 · answered by wolschou 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
They have sorting areas that that skip will go to to be sorted either by ahnd or by compressed air. A computer reads the material and then with tiny jets of air seperates the plastic from the paper.
2006-09-12 22:23:30 · answer #3 · answered by Noodle 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Newspapers are definitely re-cycled - apparently the cleaners on the London Underground have separate bags for normal rubbish and paper rubbish and it appears to take about a fortnight for a newspaper to be re-cycled which is very quick
2006-09-12 23:36:40 · answer #4 · answered by Jo B 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
no i have been to a recycling centre and all of the paper gets recycled and all card bored and natural waste gets recycled not sure about the rest.
2006-09-12 22:23:29 · answer #5 · answered by its me 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I bloody hope not, I go to alot of trouble to recycle and find it makes me feel better
2006-09-12 22:22:18 · answer #6 · answered by pepzi_bandit 2 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No, I think it gets shipped out to China where they pay people to burn it.
2006-09-12 22:33:14 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
yes and it's the same here in Australia
2006-09-12 22:32:29 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
It wouldn't surprise me in the least!
2006-09-12 22:28:24 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
no idea,i hope not.
2006-09-12 22:28:15 · answer #10 · answered by ♥Scottish♥Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ♥Fairy♥ 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋