"Tim Lamb" wrote in message
...
In message , Nightjar
writes
On 23/08/2013 08:54, The Medway Handyman wrote:
We have three bins in our kitchen, one for food scraps, one for
recycling (don't have to sort it, everything goes in one bag), and a
third for 'general waste'.

It occurs to me, that we throw out either food waste or recycling stuff.
What would you throw away that doesn't fall into either of those
categories?

I'd like to get rid of the 'general waste' bin.


It is going to vary from person to person and possibly depending upon what
is accepted for recycling. I produce little or no food waste in a week. My
general waste is about one swing bin full every week. I can't say I have
ever analysed what it consists of, but I suspect most of it will be
packaging of types that are not accepted for recycling.

There's a beef! Why are packaging manufacturers allowed to use
non-recyclable material?

I agree

This problem isn't created by the recipient, it's created by the producer

I can see that there are some things that, for genuine health and safety
reason, such as drug packaging, it can't be that simple. But where the only
reason for doing something is producer convenience then the rule should be -
"if it can't be recycled, you can't use it".

My biggest bugbear here is "window envelopes". If they can't be recycled
(as many LA's claim) then marketing companies shouldn't be allowed to use
them - simples. And I bet that they'd find a way of making then recyclable
pretty damned quickly if that were the rule.

Having said that. When Germany introduced its rule about producers having
to pay for the collection and disposal of packaging, TPTB expected that this
would result in a reduction in the quantity of packaging used. But it
didn't. The companies involved found that it was quicker and cheaper to
just set up a scheme (Grüner Punkt) whereby they paid for the collection of
all of the packaging material from domestic residents and recycled/dumped it
in the normal way, than lose the advantages (whatever they are) of the
packaging.

tim