Recycling - one item mixed metal/plastic?

I have an old TRV valve as well. I assume that is just grey bin?

Cheers

Dave R

Depends what else you might have coming up? I'd keep it in bucket as "mixed brass" along with removed compression fittings etc, and weigh it in every few years ...

I have a very expensive old bath tap that's around 2 Kg of solid brass. I have it lying around because it can't go in the recycling bin and I can't bring myself to throw it in refuse. One day, I'll take it to the dump.

Personally I would bin it. It’s probably got a mix of metals and the plastics are unlikely to be labelled with the appropriate recycling symbols.

Tim

Our local recycling site (Suffolk) has said for quite a while that they are unable to recycle 'hard plastics'. This is at the actual recycling site. I guess it means that any plastic which we carefully put in our recycling 'blue' bin at home is a total waste of time.

I do wonder now what happens to all the plastic we recycle. The latest upgrade to our recycling (at home) gives us three bins, black/grey for general waste, green lid for paper/cardboard and blue for all other recycling. We can now put just about **all** plastic in the blue bin according to the rules, so plastic bottles of all sorts, plastic film, plastic bags, absolutely anything plastic. Is it really possible to sort this out into meaningful heaps for recycling?

I pondered the same thing when I came across an old garden hose reel that needs to be disposed of. It's a mixture of plastic-coated steel and moulded plastic parts.

Do I have to smash it apart in order to recycle it? (When I bought it, the parts 'clicked' together, but there is no provision for un-clicking them for disassembly.)

At our tip, they're quite generous about what goes in the scrap metal skip. Often they'll put in metal with some kind of plastic attached. I assume that they melt it down and the plastic just helps the fire burn a bit hotter and then the remnants get scraped off as slag.

I would take such things to the tip and see what they say. They take much more than the limited set of things that go in the household recycling bins.

Theo

'Hard plastics' is things like ABS, PS and maybe HDPE. Much consumer waste is LDPE or PET, which aren't 'hard plastic' even though they might be rigid.

Ours (Cambridgeshire) has a separate 'hard plastic' skip, which takes more plastics than the household collection (eg plastic furniture, plastic flowerpots, etc).

I think the sorting robots are getting good these days. But I think the idea is that they can get rid of all the confusing lists of what is and isn't collected and just collect everything, and then sort it themselves. Even if some of that doesn't get recycled, it means they can handle it in the backend - eg maybe the LDPE doesn't have strong demand this month but can be burnt for energy, while maybe next month there's an upswing in the market and it becomes worth selling on. Even if it does get incinerated, it's still more useful than landfilling it.

The alternative is the confusing lists and people just end up putting everything in the general waste because it's too complicated. (or 'hopefully' putting everything in the recycling, and then the other end have to sort it again)

Theo

Some of the recycling companies use infra-red spectrometers to identify the composition of each fragment of plastic as it passes through the sorting machines. This is why supermarkets have been asked to avoid black plastic food trays, as these are difficult for the sorters to identify. John

When I visit our "Waste Transfer Station" these days, I always come away with some items still in the car. They have skips for each specific type of material, but I have items that don't fit any of their categories. Alternatively, when do I ask for help they point back to a container right at the start of the one-way system, 100 yards back.

A good trip to the re-cyling centre is when you come back with more than you took. I took some old carpet, some electronic scrap and some bits of kitchen units and came back with a monkey wrench and some assorted spanners . You have to make sure the "scaffies" aren't watching.

My problem at the moment is disposing of old paint. I CBA filling it up with sand or cat litter.

Brian

My recyclling has a common bin for metal and plastic

since 99% of all 'recycled' materials end up in landfill anyway, I wouldn't worry your pretty little head over it.

Chuck it in whichever bind is handy,. Or someone else's bin.

Grey bin here is compostables. Here it's a blue bin for metal and plastic. Or a black bin for 'everything else'

Ours has a 'bulky waste' skip for 'everything else' aka landfill.

One of ours is indoors on two levels, you do ground level first and then drive upstairs for the rest (including the 'bulky'). If you ask the staff about something upstairs which should have gone in the bins downstairs, there's a place you can leave small items and they take it down themselves. If it's a lot you have to go around again.

The outdoor sites are just a couple of dozen parking spaces between two rows of skips. Everything is a few metres away.

Theo

Easier said than done if it’s several miles away *and* you have to book your visit in advance.

Tim

Three bins? Luxury!!

We have 5 wheelie bins AND a food waste caddy to store and put out at various times. Effing pain in the arse.

Tim

You’re out of date. In Scotland at least landfill charges are now higher than incineration costs so all our non-recyclables (and a good deal of plastics that fail the recycling criteria) go for incineration.

Tim

When I've had to prebook (multiple counties), there's always been slots available 'right now', ie prebook a slot for half an hour's time before heading out. I think they only use the prebooking system to limit how many trips you can make per month, and ensure your address is in 'their' county. (or in part of a neighbouring county with an agreement)

They instituted the prebooking system during lockdown and then there were many fewer slots and it was about rationing a limited resource, but it doesn't seem to be these days. Perhaps it gets busy enough at peak times, I don't know.

I agree it's a problem if you don't have a car - I think some sites ban walk-ins or cycle-ins which isn't fair if you don't have a vehicle.

Theo