r/AskIreland • u/vrbtm_ • 21h ago
Environment Can we all agree thisbshould be illegal?
There are certainly options that could have been used to create recyclable packaging.
To be fair I feel its gotten better over the past few years but it still pains me to read this.
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u/Intelligent-Duck3732 21h ago
Guess what? In Ireland the stuff in your green bin doesn’t generally get recycled, it gets “sent to energy”, ie incinerated.
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u/Twichyness 19h ago
You are absolutely correct. I work in the waste management business and I send waste to incinerators 5-6 days a week. It's practiced in multiple places in Europe and is big business, it's also to try stop landfilling. Some factories are "No Landfill" sites and they use this extensively. They are also used for hazardous materials/chemical which have to be neutralized.
Imo its better than landfills but obviously it's not perfect.
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u/JMcDonagh1010 16h ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/141xGebUNJWiGI
Waste management hmmm?15
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u/Twichyness 16h ago
The amount of times people have made the Sopranos joke to me is scandalous lol.
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u/broats_ 18h ago
So is there actually any point washing my yoghurt tubs if they're just going to be incinerated?
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u/Suspicious_Try_7527 17h ago
Yoghurt isn’t really flammable so it’s best washed off
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u/Aggravating-Scene548 Penneys Hun 16h ago
So isn't it a massive waste of water if we're all cleaning our containers for incineration. I think people should be made aware anyway. What happens with the black bins then?
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u/Twichyness 16h ago
It doesn't make a massive difference no. It stops the compactors from smelling which I appreciate lol. I do it at home so my bins don't stink. They won't reject it for some yogurt residue anyways.
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u/GrumbleofPugz 12h ago
I also rinse mine out so the recycling bin in the kitchen doesnt smell or attract flies
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u/ginger_and_egg 17h ago
It it just full bins or sorted or what?
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u/Twichyness 9h ago
Everything is somewhat sorted because you have regulated and non regulated materials. Plastic is non reg so yes you could wager that a lot of full bins are incinerated. Regulated materials are handled differently but honestly are 99% incinerated too but in specialized furnaces. Every plant has strict guidelines on what they accept and don't accept.
The only time they'll reject an item in a bin is if they find something regulated inside of it or something that can't be burned like metals, if you go to the recycling centres you'll see what way it is sorted out.
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u/fairygurrrl 21h ago
Do you mean green bins that are contaminated?
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u/Rich_Tea_Bean 20h ago
70% of all plastic in ireland get incinerated for power generation. 40% of our total waste gets incinerated.
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u/CHERNO-B1LL 19h ago
This isn't The Springfield Tyre Fire though. Modern incinerators are pretty remarkable, clever, and efficient things.
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u/Rich_Tea_Bean 19h ago
That is true. The general public are sold a big lie about making a difference by using their recycling bins though.
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u/CaptainNuge 18h ago
They ARE making a difference, though. Separating out the plastics from food waste makes them safer to incinerate. It's sort of like how electric cars are cleaner burning than fossil fuel cars- even if the power that charges the battery comes from a fossil fuel power plant, that plant is operating at a consistent speed and producing power more cleanly than if you had the same fuel in an engine that was adapting its fuel consumption on the fly. It's a net improvement, even though the same sort of fuel is getting burned.
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u/Rich_Tea_Bean 17h ago
If there was no recycling we would have stopped using plastic sooner. By selling the idea of a sustainable waste process we've kept plastic around and the public are placated by having a nice bin with a recylcing logo on it to feel better about the terrible product they're using.
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u/CaptainNuge 16h ago
Fully, fully agreed. Plastic is a scourge; it'll be seen as this generation's lead paint by future generations.
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u/CHERNO-B1LL 16h ago
The personal Carbon Footprint was popularised by BP and Ogilvy & Mather advertising to shift responsibility for climate action to consumers and away from industry.
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u/balbuljata 20h ago
If the recycling bins at work are representative of people's recycling bins at home, I'd dare say that the great majority are seriously contaminated. Sometimes it's hard to tell which bin is which just by looking at its contents.
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u/fairygurrrl 20h ago
Ugh, it's so depressing. The vast majority of ppl in ireland just dont seem to really care!
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u/Comfortable-Trick-16 17h ago
I'm rigorous about the green and brown bins. I even have my own organic compost bin. I've been in friends houses and watched them not even wash out a milk carton before binning it. And that's only the start. Their green bin stank like a brown bin from all the rotting food that's not been washed off. Very disappointing
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u/Pickaroonie 13h ago
I'm the same. I shop to avoid stuff needing to go in the black bin. I haven't put out a black bin in years.
I wash items with leftover grey water, from the kitchen sink. Everything is done from a basin, to save water/steeping etc.
One last hurdle, trying to get family to see the folly of pet food pouches.. I have an almost irrational/pathological dislike of pet food pouches.
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u/balbuljata 17h ago
It's not that most don't care. It's confusing. I often see people stop in front of the bins to check which is which and still get it wrong. A lot of things that look like plastic are actually biodegradable (in industrial facilities not in your compost heap), which means that when they're put in the recycling bin they end up contaminating the whole batch. It's the same with dirty plastics. One should either wash them properly or else just chuck them into the black bin. They may well be recyclable but not if they're dirty.
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u/bigvalen 17h ago
It's not just that. I worked in a place a few years ago that noticed that of their offices in 50 countries, Ireland had the highest rate of contamination of recycling of all of their offices. So, they asked for volunteers to help people. After a week, they had to stop. People were willing to come to blows with their co-workers after being advised that a cardboard cereal bowl with cornflakes in it should go into a compost bin, not recycling, or that a plastic lid covered in mayonnaise had to go in general waste.
It's not that people are not educated. It's just that for some reason Irish people are literally willing to fight you to put stuff in the wrong bin, even if you try educate them.
What was wild was that the office was only 30% Irish, and even Germans seemed to have learned the Irish love if putting shit in the wrong place after only living here a while. It was wild.
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u/Krunkledimp 15h ago
In my work I used to put the cardboard boxes my lunch was in the compost, because it was cardboard and it still had crumbs and all, then I noticed the cleaning staff reaching into the bin to move it to recycling, and now I just have no idea what I'm meant to do.
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u/Adventurous_Memory18 19h ago
No, not just contaminated, most gets incinerated so you can put in all soft packaging now. Cans get removed before I believe but that’s it.
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u/merchantscot 10h ago
Yup, we ship about 3000 tons of it a week from the port I work at. And to top it off the taxpayer pays for it to be shipped. Countries such as Sweden and Denmark then incinerate it for electricity. Were the fools giving them free fuel essentially
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u/ThoseAreMyFeet 19h ago
Lots of recycling is incinerated then screened to separate out the metal nuggets left over. Aluminium, iron, copper etc are all separated from the incinerator ash and sold, it's a multi million euro business.
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u/fairygurrrl 21h ago
How do you know this?
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u/Brilliant_Walk4554 21h ago
It's not hidden but it's not talked about in the clearest way either.
See the final line in this article: https://mywaste.ie/dispose-waste/at-home/three-bin-system/the-recycling-bin/soft-plastics/
"If it cannot currently be recycled it will be sent as Solid Recovered Fuel (SRF) to replace fossil fuels at cement kilns."
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u/stuyboi888 I will yeah 19h ago
It's mad. In Japan, they just have bins that are for incineration. Why lie, just be straight up and deal with the outcome
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u/fairygurrrl 21h ago
Thank you. That is much more useful answer than previous smug reply from a different commenter of "it's been known for years" 😒
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u/Kier_C 21h ago
Most things in recycling aren't easily recycled (i.e. most plastics). Incineration is still better than landfill though!
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u/The_12OCKET 21h ago
Easily is the wrong word- a machine does the work- profitably is a better fit.
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u/Kier_C 20h ago
No, in many cases it's just not a feasible process. Many plastics do not recycle well, many plastics cannot handle contamination even to a very small level
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u/The_12OCKET 20h ago
Contamination is removed early in the recycling process of most plastics- there are (I think) 7 grades of potentially recyclable plastics and they produce varying grades of pellets. These pellets are graded themselves for quality and resold based on that quality. You’re right that micro contaminants have an effect of course that’s why there are grades of output
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u/Kier_C 20h ago
No, there are 7 polymer categories (and number 7 is "Other"). This is for identification not recycling, most of those 7 cannot be reasonably recycled. You get good results with PET (which is why they have those bottle machines now) and PP. Cross contamination is a big problem for usable material (as is any other gunk along for the journey)
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u/The_12OCKET 19h ago
I hear you. “Reasonably” is relative- and it will change with time. Above comment says the plastics industry has known about unreasonable recyclability assumptions since the ‘80’s, true. But only because the innovation is still
Lagging behind demand.Indeed 7 is other. Infiltrated plastics, compounds and so on. It’s come a long way from thermoplastics vs thermosets.
When they have economically feasible reprocessing for all polymers the maths will change. For now I stand by my hope that environmentally responsible incineration of non profitable waste (all kinds) can balance the scales until that time.
But innovation is lagging and it’s causing low confidence in the continuation of the recycling agenda which simply must continue.
The reality is that self sorting and collection is practical because the highest value products can be separated without cost (you and I pay that in time to get our money back without earning for our time) and it works as it does in Scandinavia and others. The sooner an economic stakeholder sees return on investment the more acceptable it is.
I am hopeful.
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u/Kier_C 18h ago
Innovation is "lagging" because it's not possible or economically viable to recycle the vast majority of polymer types. The basic material science will keep it that way for most of it and the economics gets in the way of the rest.
I agree, self sorting, collection (and delivery in the case of bottles and cans) is the way forward. More mandates on what is acceptable packaging design would also help. Reduce and Reuse are also important. And properly controlled incineration for everything else.
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u/The_12OCKET 18h ago
We are aligned. I studied packaging design and material science and it pains me that we still bury stuff, and have such a plethora of products that we have not engineered sustainable disposal mechanisms for, but I believe there are enzymes and safe-soluble chem solutions to all- once the economics fit. For now I’m off to the bottle bank and RVM before I go shopping :)
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u/Background_Cover5097 19h ago
No, from a chemical perspective, many plastics cannot be recycled or give a very degraded version of that plastic when recycled. And the recycling process itself is very toxic and usually done in countries where there is not much regulation.
Reduce and reuse are more effective than recycle.
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u/The_12OCKET 11h ago
This is what I mean though the drive to innovate reduced harm chemical processing is a key element often missed. It doesn’t need to be so.
Reduce and reuse yes- but these are habitual norms that take generations to instil- and there will always be a class who ignore change.
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u/CampaignSpirited2819 21h ago
I think a really low percentage actually gets sent for recycling, the rest just goes the same way as the black bin
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u/Accomplished_Ad8172 21h ago
A journalist put a tracker in his green bin, went to the incinerator. There’s an article about it somewhere.
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u/fairygurrrl 21h ago
Oh I must look that up. I wonder did it go straight there or did it go to sorting facility first...
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u/Altruistic_Papaya430 20h ago
I remember following this back when Irish Twitter was a thing. The chap was interviewed on Joe Duffy. He put a tracker in his recycling 4 times and each time it went to the incinerator
https://louiseroseingrave.substack.com/p/recycling-ruse-rumbled-by-tracking
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u/BreastAficionado 21h ago
Because Ireland doesnt have many recycling facilities on the island. Most gets sent abroad or just burnt. Google is free you can look into it yourself.
Like the closest recycling facility that does coated paper cups (like mcdonalds etc.) is in Germany.
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u/The_12OCKET 21h ago
This is not new. Recycling has to be profitable- the cost of workers and infrastructure means it’s a fine enough margin anywhere which is why most certainly used to get sold to china. (Also, bear in mind the shortest patch back to the majority manufacturing locations for PE/PP pellets to be reused).
I believe most work on the island is to sort and pack it appropriately so it can be resold.
The comment about “items which cannot be recycled” i believe is in respect of those recovered from recycling programs which is contaminated or misidentified as a recyclable, which is used for energy recovery incineration with carbon capture in most countries.
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u/craichoor 20h ago
“Recycling has to be profitable.”
This is such capitalist brain rot, saving our planet and protecting our eco-systems should not have to be profitable.
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u/The_12OCKET 20h ago
Shouldn’t , correct. But it is. At some point we all have to straddle the line between idealism and realism
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u/fairygurrrl 21h ago
There's no need to be rude and condescending. I am well aware that Google is free thank you very much and wasn't asking you directly!!
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u/obscure_monke 10h ago
Is that a Dublin thing? Here in the midlands, most recycling bins are blue, and the general ones are green. Compost is brown. (glass is too because they reused the compost ones)
Had a purple bin once when I lived in Cork.
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u/Mysterious-Fun-3795 39m ago
Wow your the first person ive ever dealt with that has half a clue abiut this.... Most stuff isnt actually recycled in the way 99.9% of people think it is... I once worked for veola.... Google them..... Let's say I recycle nothing now
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u/Gooner197402 21h ago
All the brown bin stuff is incinerated also
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u/Even-Translator-335 20h ago
It is industrially composted.
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u/craichoor 20h ago
Anaerobic digesters.
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u/AlaChonkadonk 19h ago
This is the correct answer. That material is relatively valuable to anaerobic digestors, because it is high in Gas production potential.
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u/ShmooShmitShmoorself 21h ago
I'd say you're wrong there sure That doesn't even make sense, it's mostly water in the compost.
There's a good reason they're trying to push food waste separation across the country
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u/MF-Geuze 21h ago
Is there something really oily inside? In which case better to not recycle it. If it's just some paper, it's not the worst. A lot of recycled paper just ends up getting burned, anyway
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u/Clear-Anybody9515 20h ago
I was about to say the same thing. The problem isn't with the packaging, it's the contents. Some packages just can't be recycled no matter what it made from. At least burning paper or cardboard for energy is more sustainable than burning fossil fuels.
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u/Herefornow211 19h ago
The main thing is that most plastic foil is a mixture of different materials, for example to make it see-through in places or save material. The are very difficult to recycle in comparison to a plastic tray for example.
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u/Basic-Newspaper-7536 21h ago
Any kind of soft plastic wrapper is extremely unlikely to be recycled in the end, even if it’s indicated that it can be. Also those indications are not always accurate— very often products packaged for sale in the UK are sold here and you see things like “recycle at supermarket” which is not a thing here. So, probably not worse than many more innocent looking things.
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u/Bright_Fan_9168 21h ago
It's a thing in Lidl, where you can recycle your packaging and lately in Tesco where you can recycle soft plastic, clean and dry. I do the bulk of my shop there because of this.
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u/Basic-Newspaper-7536 21h ago edited 20h ago
I have seen the odd one but assume it is not a separated recycling stream, rather that they are there because people bring things that can’t go into the deposit return machines. The Tesco ones at least also accept PET so I’d be very surprised if it ended up somewhere else.
In any case, it’s not part of Ireland’s public recycling system, whereas in the UK supermarkets have some obligations to provide a specific recycling stream. The point is these labels do not tell you if you can put the packaging in a recycling bin in the country where you bought the product (same issue across neighbouring countries on the continent too…) and absolutely don’t tell you if it will be recycled.
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u/Bright_Fan_9168 21h ago
Sorry, I'm in Ireland, you're in UK?
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u/dendrophilix 21h ago
Lidl and Tesco in Ireland both definitely have containers beyond the tills where you can put your “recycle at supermarket” stuff. I bag mine and then bring them when the bag is full.
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u/Basic-Newspaper-7536 21h ago edited 20h ago
“Recycle at the supermarket” is not part of the Irish system, we see those labels because things sold in the UK are sold here without being relabelled. Handy that there are some bins in shops but if it’s actually a different recycling stream I’d be very surprised— and ultimately it’s just not relevant when supermarkets don’t have and obligation to offer a certain kind of recycling
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u/ShaneONeill88 20h ago
Are they 'recycle at supermarket' containers or are they just bins? It's only a few years since the supermarkets were more or less forced to put those containers there because people of their own volition started removing packaging before they left the shop.
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u/dendrophilix 20h ago
They’re labelled recycling as far as I remember. The Tesco ones definitely include a piece about how the containers themselves were made locally out of non-recyclable plastics.
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u/The_12OCKET 21h ago
You can recycle plastic bags in supermarkets In UK and ireland. Source: lived in both.
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u/Basic-Newspaper-7536 20h ago
If some Irish supermarkets put out bins it’s not because it is part of our recycling system, it’s a commercial choice they make. In the UK the recycling regulations involve a supermarket only separate stream (in some areas, and it seems to be changing). Source: this is public policy which you can check.
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u/obscure_monke 10h ago
Chris Spargo video about that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuwaOiTHl7U
Here, places are required to take back packaging they sell with some exceptions if they pay Repak. I've seen signs up about the latter in an Aldi, but haven't checked on the specifics.
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u/Patient-Abrocoma-596 21h ago
Recycling is generally a bit of a scam in Ireland and globally in most cases. A lot of what we recycle (mostly plastic) can't actually be recycled without seriously damaging it's effectiveness so it's often just dumped or burned.
For food packaging I'm really unsure what you could do outside of mandating paper packaging. But I've always been a believer in banning plastic bottles below 750ml and just moving to cans, could easily be done and you have resealable cans these days
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u/The_12OCKET 21h ago
This is probably a bit misleading. Plastics can absolutely be recycled effectively and reused- the damage to effectiveness is incorrect. It results in some cases (depending on the category) in lower quality material- yes- however there are applications for that material which are perfectly appropriate.
The answer lies more in production of plastic items from these grades of materials than it does in the recycling process.3
u/Rich_Tea_Bean 20h ago
The plastics industry has known since the 80s that it's not economically viable to recycle plastic. Cut to the modern day and we're still producing plastic in even greater quantities with the same waste problem.
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u/Background_Cover5097 19h ago
For example PET can be recycled but PVC and polystyrene can't. The recycling logo just neand they are collected by recycling facilities.
In a way incineration after serving a useful life is better than burning oil directly.
However I expect more evidence against plastic safety to emerge in the next decades. Off gassing amd leaching of initiators and additives, microplastics etc may be much more harmful than predicted.
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u/AlaChonkadonk 19h ago
Agreed. Also, not everything that goes into the recycling bin does get recycled at the moment. This situation is created on purpose to force the material production and waste management sectors to innovate to reduce the cost burden of disposal of the non-recycled materials in the recycling bin.
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u/Animated_Astronaut 20h ago
Water specifically has no business being in plastic bottles. It's the only plastic bottle I ever buy but only when I'm stuck out. Canned water!
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u/40yrs-energyindustry 21h ago edited 21h ago
No. Most so-called recyclable material is burned in an incinerator because it is unenomic and/or in reality, technically difficult impossible to recycle. How do I know this? Have installed steam turbines at incinerators where I saw what gets burnt. Only high-value material such as metals, clean paper & cardboard, glass, and some high-grade plastics, can be economically recycled. Food packaging as shown in the picture is to my knowledge, never recycled.
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u/The_12OCKET 20h ago
I take your point but “most” is an overstatement. You’re right it’s uneconomic in most western countries to actually process recycling. However the failure indicated here is an inability so find and sell to markets in which it is economically feasible.
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u/Kier_C 20h ago
It's not even about economics, many plastics and contaminated materials cannot be recycled
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u/The_12OCKET 20h ago
Yes but they still have an economic value. They are bought by weight after sorting and rejection for sale as fuel for incinerators, ie energy production.
People think incineration is disposal of waste it isn’t. It’s an energy market
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u/Kier_C 20h ago edited 20h ago
Ya, you can see it all over this thread, incineration as some form of "cheating" when it's actually a good use for a lot of this stuff
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u/40yrs-energyindustry 20h ago
If you believe it is economic and practical to recycle the stuff you have mentioned, you can set up a business and do it yourself. If what you claim is true, you will have no shortage of investors.
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u/The_12OCKET 20h ago
It is in fact the solution. Historically incineration was used to dispose of stuff but now it’s energy positive and the heat drives turbines and generates electricity. It needs the right amount of carbon management to be socially and environmentally acceptable.
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u/40yrs-energyindustry 20h ago
What you are in reality proposing is to sent our rubbish to poor 3rd world countries where children pick-over it in huge dumps, and what's left behind gets washed out to sea during the next monsoon. These are the markets for so-called recycled materials. If it is not economic to recycle in a country where health and safety standards, environmental standards are enforced, and living wages are paid, then the only way it can be accepted in a foreign country is when all these standards do not exist, or are ignored.
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u/italic_pony_90 21h ago
It's contaminated, literally asking you not to recycle!! ♻️
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u/vrbtm_ 18h ago
Ahh, genuinely is that why it says that?
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u/DoubleInvertz 17h ago
yep, this looks looks microwave popcorn, which has oil in it from the factory, they use paper packaging because it allows for expansion and is microwave safe, but once it’s used it is contaminated with oil and can’t be recycled anymore. adding this to your recycling bin will contaminate the whole thing and send it all to incineration (most of our recycling is incinerated anyway)
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u/CatL1f3 20h ago
A lot of these labels are for the UK, they'll say it's not recycled even though in Ireland it is
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u/digbat247 20h ago
The vast majority of recycling guidance on products is only the UK guidance.
Soft plastic like this does go in the green bin, it doesn't get recycled it gets burnt, which isn't great but it's better than a) just dumping it in the ground when it's pretty much a concentrated fossil fuel that could be burnt for energy b) filtering it out of nappys, broken cups and hoover dust in the black bin
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u/JazzlikeBreakfast495 15h ago
It looks like it’s waxed paper wrapping meat? While it’s frustrating that it says don’t recycle, it’s very likely that you can compost it. And either way it’s better than the only alternative which is plastic.
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u/Jungleson 19h ago
The lesson here really is that most 'recycling' is just greenwashing and virtue signalling. Most stuff is not economical to recycle and there's a lot of contamination in the streams.
Reduce, reuse, recycle. There's a reason recycle is the last on the list.
Unfortunately we tolerate the ludicrous amount of plastic packaging we have in Ireland because we can 'recycle' it. If we had to put it in the black bin there'd be outrage.
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u/geo_gan 17h ago
Yep.. was a massive psychological trick by the giant industries that actually produce all the pollution that is destroying the planet to redirect the “cause and problem” back onto the general public instead of themselves. Like changing from plastic to paper straws makes one bit of difference when you have the giant countries buying, transporting & burning billions of gallons of diesel every year. All a joke just to appease the masses and redirect blame.
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u/Kier_C 19h ago
most 'recycling' is just greenwashing and virtue signalling.
That's not really true. Incineration is a good use for this material. Reduce and Reuse should be done first though
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u/Jungleson 16h ago
Incineration is not recycling though. Like if we all had a red bin called incineration bin and put all our plastic in that it's at least be more honest than everyone thinking their plastic waste is getting recycled into new stuff
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u/Phineas_Gagey 11h ago
The company BIC (biros lighters razors etc) specialise in making almost exclusively disposable plastic items. Always wonder why nobody complains.
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u/More-Way9454 21h ago
Look it's a big scam in Ireland. They burn it all. ( Nearly all it's more complicated )
They then try and pass that off as an energy source. Not saying it's not. But we are nowhere as squeaky clean as we make out to be.
The consumer pays.
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u/Unique_Bass5624 18h ago
The phrase "Recycling" is about as creative as "Renewable energy".
On paper it looks cool. In practise it's hardly ever actually done and only really boils down to creative bookkeeping.
Out of the 7 main types of plastics only PET is viable to recycle. And even PET is hardly actually recycled due to contamination.
Why? Cost.
Cost is why stuff doesn't get recycled. We have the technology to recycle most things but we don't because no one wants to foot the bill.
One of the great scams in the world is the plastic industry shoving plastics down our throats like it was some sort of super safe wonder material. And after it came out it is hugely detrimental to the enviroment and our health, turn it around to place the blame and responsibility on the consumer. There are several studies and documentaries on this.
Out of all "Recycling" world wide, almost none is actually recycled. One of the ways to obfuscate the numbers is exporting recycling. The exporting country will write it off as recycled, eventhough the country that's supposedly recycling either still dumps it in landfill or incinerates it, or worse, just dumps it in the ocean. Ofcourse this greatly skews the numbers, and regardless of this creative bookkeeping, the numbers are still horrendous.
Recycling is a token word. It really means nothing. Just as renewable or green energy. A wind turbine doesn't negate it's own carbon footprint in it's lifespan when you calculate it's entire dependency matrix. Solar panels have chemicals in them that are hugely impactful to the enviroment. They also don't "win" anything when calculating their entire dependency matrix. Biofuel energy reactors burn wood pellets, making them glorified woodstoves, etc, etc. There are plenty of examples out there. Looks great on paper, but realistically it doesn't hold up to any scrutiny.
Most people assume that because we can, we do. Nothing is actually further from the truth. It all boils down to money. If it doesn't make money, no one will take the loss. The industries responsible will lobby their way out of responsibility. Eventhough it costs a ton of money, it's still the cheaper option.
Sorry to burst a lot of bubbles, but most of this stuff is just a scam to create different reasons to tax us more. We live in a world where the companies who actually should be held accountable have mastered shifting the blame on the consumer. They created the problem, usually by lying, we get to pay for it.
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u/Teetotal4now 17h ago
I heard something similar from a German guy I used to work with. Might have changed now after 20 years, but he said that the German push to recycle was almost pointless as everything was exported to countries like Turkey.
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u/OnceOrange 21h ago
I don't read wrappers and just put everything that looks like plastic in the green bin... If they don't want me to do that then they should ban non recyclable plastic 🤷🏻♀️
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u/Anto64w 19h ago edited 19h ago
Hypothetically, Out of four visually identical pieces of plastic, all with no labels, and cut into the same size square. they would want you to; wash one and put in the green bin, throw the another unwashed into a black bin, bring another to a recycling centre a 20 minute drive away, and bring the last back to the shop where you bought it for your 15 cent back.
It's not a serious system. One IKEA box will have you going here there and everywhere trying to get rid of the box and whatever is left inside it.
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u/Irishdairyfarmer1 21h ago
No I don't think hazardous food coverings should be put in the recycling
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u/thebprince 21h ago
Recycling is little more than performative. All that really gets recycled en masse is glass, aluminium and more recently electronics.
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u/Kier_C 19h ago
Incineration isn't performative, it generates energy and lowers our emissions doing so
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u/thebprince 10h ago
Incineration is not recycling. Calling it recycling is indeed performative.
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u/Kier_C 9h ago
Incineration is reusing the waste as a fuel source. Thats recycling. As opposed to dumping it in a land fill. One has no benefit and no use. The other lowers our carbon emissions and reduces our imported fuel
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u/Ok_Beginning740 16h ago
I watched a bin company collecting recycling and compost bins at the same time. My neighbours recycling bin was uplifted on the left side lift, my recycling on the right. Then obviously the compost bins were on opposite sides too. So on the lorry the bins were not kept apart ie recycling and compost were tipped into each other.
Who’s fooling who ?
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u/JazzlikeBreakfast495 15h ago
Typically the bin has a chip in it, and the lorry will move a baffle internally - imagine compost on the left and recycling on the right. The bin dumps into the middle, but the baffle is already positioned so push pushes the load to the correct side.
It’s probably more complex if it can do two bins at a time, but I saw the same thing and asked the driver about it, and he explained it to me
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u/questionable_fish 12h ago
I think the one that takes our bins just has a narrower side for the compost because the brown wheelie bin is thinner than the others
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u/questionable_fish 15h ago
Do they always do this or could it have been a mistake?
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u/Ok_Beginning740 15h ago
I’m not sure but I’ve seen it happen and I guess it happens elsewhere too.
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u/cbhbzb 21h ago
paper biodegradable anyway, but if it's gready you can't recycle it, the grease will contaminate all the other recycled paper. if sid paper is actually going to the recycle
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u/stateofyou 18h ago
Composting is the answer for a lot of the waste if people separate their trash properly.
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u/CrazyGas6484 21h ago
The reality is that paper bag is going to burned in the same incinerator as the "recyclable" plastic you're buying and it's actually much better to use the paper bag.
"Recyclable" packaging is just a buzz word so people feel better about using plastic. Always has been.
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u/The_12OCKET 20h ago
I have commented on answers below in response to a lot of groupthink but my opinion is yes. The problem is it will cost more and we will have limited produce availability. There are shops where you can bring your own containers, bags etc and obtain goods- but stuff like microwave popcorn which is multi layered for food safety as the item cooks is too expensive to recover economically. Many food products have the same issue. Laminated cardboard with waterproof/wax layers, foiled internal plastics (like crisp packets) all have impractical reuse problems.
For these bin-recyclables there is a marginal environmentally acceptable solution where they are incinerated with carbon capture recovery and the energy sold making it industrially feasible.
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u/StrangerGlum3591 20h ago
wowww I had a word for this post. Egoclash.
The post is trying to force an opinion without research. All the comments are trying to call others to be wrong. a new category of “discussion”.
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u/vostok33 20h ago
Everything gets incinerated makes no difference. I dont even wash my stuff anymore
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u/Broad-Ad-4379 19h ago
You’re recycling is mostly separated, crushed into bales and shipped to south east Asia and China, so if you think this wrapper is the problem you really need to look behind the curtain of it all.
Paper straws are the answer 😀
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u/BillyMooney 18h ago
The vast amount of ready meals now sold in foil trays is crazy. That's a vast amount of non recyclable material.
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u/Natural_Science_2112 17h ago
Reminds me of the guy who put Apple tags in a cardboard box in his recycling bin four weeks in a row. They all ended up in the Poolbeg incinerator.
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u/Sad-State5942 17h ago
We was all our recycled plastic for the blue bin,I've started working in a restaurant,where you have big plastic containers of raw chicken breasts,the plastic bottles of cream,+loads of others,that are just threw in+never washed,I'm thinking to myself why do I even bother washing out our stuff at home
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u/ThinLink2404 16h ago
No, we can't all agree. The comments are full of people who don't agree. Even if I personally agree with you, it should have been obvious before you posted this that you were not going to get 100% agreement.
I want a ban on people starting a reddit post with "Can we all agree", because the answer is always no. This is reddit!
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u/PhilTwhole 15h ago
It doesn't really matter what companies use for packaging. I follow the rules for recycling and composting but my bins are collected in the same truck as my neighbours, who really don't give a fuck.
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u/stan-117red 15h ago
Actual Recycling done in this country is very low , most go to dumps, it's really a waste of effort and time
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u/crankyandhangry 13h ago
I dont know what material this is, but keep in mind that a lot of packaging whoch is itself made from recycled material cannot be recycled. Some plastics have a set number of times you can use them before they cant be recycled any more. By asking for recyclable packaging only, we are essentially demanding only "fresh" packaging.
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u/urmyleander 13h ago
Firstly what is the product? Secondly thats an OPRL logo which is applicable to the UK only because they actually recycle we dont, the official repak stance on any product even laminates that arent recyclable is that they go into a recycling bin and get sorted for "energy recovery" later.
Depending on the product in that bag paper may not be an option especially if it has a high fat content.
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u/EoinJFleming 11h ago
There's new legislation called PPWR coming in the next few years... it's going to change everything for packaging
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u/erouz 20h ago
I will be downvote to hell but I said anyway. If government and companies really care we will be back using only glas and metal. But they "fix" everything with new taxes.
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u/unwiseeyes 19h ago
Honestly the government need to do more when it comes to recycling. Expecting people to ensure every piece of packaging is spotless just so it can be recycled is mental.
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u/Kier_C 19h ago
What would you suggest?
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u/No-Boysenberry4464 17h ago
We should introduce a standard for recycling, so we all put the same thing in “recycling” and “organic” bins, as well as bottles/cans etc
Every piece of packaging produces then should have a coloured dot indicating which bin it goes. Every food has a colour chart on the front showing sugar/salt etc, add it to that for food packaging
Different waste companies have different rules so it needs the government to set the standard
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u/stateofyou 18h ago
Japan has very strict rules about what type of trash you put out. However, they collect five days a week. I think that would result in a lot of Irish people fly tipping
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u/cuckedfrombirth 21h ago
No food should be packaged or shipped. We can live off what is local. Marketing has ruined this world
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u/hypor 21h ago
Some foods are covered in oils, grease or other seasonings that contaminate the packaging. No real way around it other than to not offer the food.