Thursday 22 January 2009

Week 3 - Plastic Spouts

Since Bristol introduced recycling facilities for Tetrapak containers I have been taking regular bagfuls of juice and milk cartons to our nearest bin in the Bedminter Asda car park. It's a positive step and I welcome it.

However, before I can recycle my cartons, I have to remove the plastic spouts and/or lids, which are not recyclable and which I fear may contaminate the recycling process.

I remember when containers were made of treated cardboard and nothing else. You snipped the corner with a pair of scissors to form a spout and poured yourself a drink. If this was done carefully there was no mess and the whole container could be recycled.

While preparing for last year's Zero Waste Week Challenge I discovered that Sainsbury's Basics fruit juice comes in spout-free cartons. I shall have to seek them out again.

Weekly Weigh-In = 345 g + a broken gas lighter weighing 95 g making a total of 440 g.
This is well up on last week's 290 g. We are still throwing out a lot of Christmas waste. I'm hoping that as this peters out my levels will go down again.

PS To encourage members of my family to consider what they are throwing away I have removed the waste basket from the living room. I think it's helping.

2 comments:

Layla said...

Oh I just try to avoid the tetrapaks! still not sure exactly how they are recycled..
(planning to make bottled juice next summer/autumn..)
Removing the bin from living room seems a great idea!
We never had one there, but I think our kitchen bin is too big too! (a smaller one might be just okay too.. seems a bigger one seems to attract more waste!)

just Gai said...

The girls drink a lot of fruit juice. The bottled stuff is generally more expensive than the tetrapak varieties. I used to feel terribly guilty about throwing them away, but now that our council has provided recycling facilities I don't feel as bad. However I do encourage them to drink more water.