Plastics recycling

Having got over the first flush of pleasure after the Council started collecting plastics for recycling, I began to wonder what was going on.

A bit of backstory: the little recycle logo on most plastic containers has a number in it which tells you the kind of plastic. The commonest are polyethylene terephthalate (PTFE), number 1, most plastic bottles; high density polyethylene (HDPE), number 2, milk "cartons"; and polypropylene (PP), number 5, margarine tubs, yoghurt pots etc.

Flash forward again. The Council leaflet says you can put out "plastic food trays, plastic yoghurt pots, margarine tubs, all plastic bottles". That seems to cover the three common kinds of plastic. But what about other items that are made of those plastics? and what about "food trays" which can be made of almost anything, including polystyrene which is normally a recycling no-no?

It seemed that a more intelligent instruction to householders would give the numbers of the plastics that could be put out and, even without such an instruction, one could act intelligently if one knew what numbers the Council could in fact deal with. So I asked the Council. The question was a long time in the answering. The final answer was that they didn't know.

What is going on is this. The information the Council puts in its leaflet is the information it gets itself from the recycling contractor, Baylis Recycling. So the Council knows no more than you or me. I surmise that the same instructions are given to the Baylis employees who hand-sort the plastic. So if you put in something that doesn't come within the description, even if it is in fact the same kind of plastic and just as recyclable, it gets chucked. So I wonder, when we read the recycling statistics, do they include what is dumped by the contractor?

It is to be hoped that something better can be achieved with the heralded new recycling facility for Southwark, or with Ken's big scheme.