On Fri, 10 Nov 2017 09:59:20 +0000, Nightjar
wrote:


After years of wondering where all those little grey plastic tubes in
the garden come from, the light has finally dawned...

They used to be cardboard ...


I’ve noticed that too. It’s a bit odd given that the firework makers seemed
to have gone to some lengths to make the rest of the fireworks out of
biodegradable materials.

The motors however all seem to be a translucent rigid hard plastic tubes
that don’t *look* biodegradable. I could be wrong though.

Probably less susceptible to damp and hence to the firework that doesn't
appear to be going off, until somebody approaches it to check.

Those who go game or clay pigeon shooting with shotguns have come
across similar issues . Many cartridges have been plastic cased rather
than thick card for years but they tend to fall within a few feet of
the Gun after ejection or need to be removed by hand anyway and so are
easily collected , here is a little bit of brass whose scrap value may
build up eventually once hundreds are accumulated. More of a problem
are the wads which are ejected from the barrel and land yards away ,
at a clay pigeon site a clean up afterwards is often done but with
game shooting the wads "disappear " into the undergrowth.
They were paper at one time and rotted away but then manufactures
found it was cheaper to use polyethylene and in some cases it has been
used for ballistic characteristics as well as some shooters feel
plastic is more consistent and like the firework example doesn't get
affected by damp.

Hence a good part of the countryside now has plastic disks littering
it.

The problem hasn't gone unnoticed and many shoots now ban cartridges
with plastic wads though in some cases it was Landowners who imposed
the condition and they had to conform or shoot elsewhere.

G.Harman