OT: Amazon packaging

I once went to a courier company warehouse to pick up a parcel and witnessed the driver returning from his round with all the undelivered packages (presumably "you were out when we called"). He had a large broom and pushed them all out of the back of the van on to the concrete floor - van unloaded ready for he next day :(

I probably listened to the same interview :)

One solution put forward was a much more aggressive regime for recycling (including cardboard) with the public having to do all the sorting.

Apparently Australia forces its residents to recycle _everything_ into dozens of different collection boxes :)

I compost most of my card but it is a complete PITA to remove any packing tape etc. unless the card is completely wet.

On the subject of "one use" plastic some food retailers have cut the use of plastic inner bags but have changed to using plastic coated cardboard for the outer wrapping. This I cannot easily compost as often it is impossible to remove the plastic layer.

I think I've just found another reason for excessive packaging!

Had been looking up Roku streaming devices on Amazon and one item in the list was this:

Vaxson Pack of 2 Anti Blue Light Screen Protector

The whole system needs simplifying. One bin for dirty stuff, one for clean and one for food/garden waste. Incinerate the dirty to produce power, compost the organic (our council already does both of these) and centrally sort and recycle the clean.

And remove some of the restrictions. We can recycle some plastics, but not others and it is often not clear which, put glass bottles, but not a broken glass in the bin - let the council/recyclers sort it. Put in tins and cans, but not a brake disk (despite asbestos being abolished decades ago).

The council require multiple recycling bins (they are talking about possibly moving to seven), but we only have so much kitchen space and cannot fit a big enough divided bin (each compartment would be too small to fit things that need to go in), without blocking access from one end to the other.

That means that things either stay on kitchen worktops or in bags hanging from cupboard door handles, getting in the way or we have to go out to the right bin, which means putting shoes on, maybe getting dressed and also getting soaked and letting warm air out in the winter.

Sometimes that is just too much hassle and something goes in the kitchen general waste bin, when it should be recycled.

Councils need to realise that people don't have unlimited space for multiple indoor bins (and often not for the outdoor ones either), don't have unlimited time to sort different items (especially removing tape and plastic windows) and make it easier.

At the moment, the system is space and time costly and the time (and more importantly, the space) is being taken from householders by council demands.

I have worked as part of a team designing such a recycling plant (to be installed abroad) with such separation, sorting and power generation on site. Fitted with equipment to detect and separate metals, plastics, glass, paper, cardboard and to "burn" everything else in a plasma arc furnace, producing syngas for gas turbines and steam for steam turbines. That site required no separation - even coping with breaking up and recycling whole engine blocks.

It is easier for such a system, if we do pre-separate at home, but it should not require so many different waste streams.

But I guess most of that stuff is being sent by air, with an incentive to minimise package size/weight, and in the post, with lots of other small items, not by courier with lots of large items.

Air freight is done by volumetric or actual weight, whichever is the greater is what you pay for.

I once ordered two drill bits from Screwfix, they arrrived in a carton about the size of a box for 12 bottles of wine.

Jonathan