Plastice being sent to China

[PurpleDragon]

I just saw this on Sky News and I'm flabberghasted. I had heard this was going on, but didn't really believe it, you know?

So much for those "environmentally friendly" collection areas in T***o for you to put your carrier bags in for "recycling"

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,, ... 80,00.html

I cannot tell you just how much i feel disappointed and disgusted that this happens.

[pskipper]

Good grief, all the more reason to avoid the big supermarkets! I'm doing my best to avoid using plastic carrier bags by taking a rucksack with me when I go shopping.

[Merry]

Brings home to me that the first two `Rs` - reduce & re-use, are the important ones, with recycle being a last-ish resort! In fact, where plastic wrapping is concerned the other `R` - refuse - should be implemented.

[PurpleDragon]

Well, for various reasons (basically two dead cars) I just had to order my groceries from T*sco online. and they delivered it this afternoon. I couldn't believe the amount of bags they used. Three of four items in them maximum and most bags had JUST ONE ITEM in them!

Now I have another mountain of carrier bags in my kitchen, with no idea what to do with them now that I can't send them back to flippin T*sco for so-called recycling.

[Stonehead]

Bundle them all up tightly, stick them in another bag and address it to:

T***o Customer Services, Baird Avenue
FREEPOST SCO3145
DUNDEE
DD1 1YP

If you want to, add a note saying that you object to T***o using so many plastic bags.

I've done this a couple of times after reading the original story in the Guardian back in September...

And yes, I'm sure they'll bin them or send them for "recycling" but it gets the message across.

Oh and some others:

Sainsbury's
FREEPOST NWW275A
City House, City Road
CHESTER
CH88 3YE

Waitrose & John Lewis Partnership
FREEPOST SW1647
BRACKNELL
RG12 8HX

W.H. Smith Retail Ltd
Freepost SCE4410
SWINDON, Wiltshire
SN3 3XS

Woolworths PLC
Freepost NWW58A
ROCHDALE
OL11 3ZZ

I've not found ones for Morrisons, ASDA or Safeway as yet.

You could also send them batteries if you can't find a recycling point, wasteful packaging, etc.

Guerilla anti-consumerism!

[PurpleDragon]

(snipped)
Bundle them all up tightly, stick them in another bag and address it to:

You could also send them batteries if you can't find a recycling point, wasteful packaging, etc.

Guerilla anti-consumerism!

Thanks for that Stoney. I didn't know anything about this! I'm still shocked. The bags are all sitting inside one of their fellows hanging off my kitchen door. I shall write a covering letter to explain why they are getting all these bags back as well. Shocking!

We have a battery recycling point at our local tip. Of course, now I don't trust the buggers at all - are they recycling them, or just getting me to put bring them from my house to their collection point, so they can justify their two-weekly refuse collection, saving themselves money, and then taking them on to the flippin landfill.

How can we find out, Stoney, do you know? How can I be sure my recyucling is a worthwhile cause and the stuff I ditifully separate does get recycled?

[PurpleDragon]

AND another thing - if T*sco aren't recycling these bags, what can I do with any others I might find lurking? I'm certainly not taking them to those points in the shops. Might as well dig a bloody great hole in my back garden.

What are we doing about this? How can this be stopped? Man, I'm SO MAD about it!

[The Chili Monster]

Stonehead wrote:

Bundle them all up tightly, stick them in another bag

Why not go one step further? Collect all (excess) packaging from all own-brand produce, and stick it in with the carriers.

Likewise, return all excess packaging to food manufacturers (save them for a week or so first).

[maggie144]

i too have just looked at this article

me and OH are shocked, i don't throw mine away, and i do try to take bags with me, i haven't shopped in a large supermarket for years,because my illness does not allow me (i get panic attacks)


i think i will be following suite and sending all excess back to where they came.

maggie

[The Chili Monster]

Morrisons (Safeways is now part of the Morrisons):

Wm Morrison Supermarkets PLC
Hilmore House
Gain Lane
Bradford
BD3 7DL

Or telephone 0845 611 5000

Asda (apparently Asda don't overcharge -they mischarge)

Asda Head Office
Asda House
Leeds

Lidl

Lidl UK GmbH
19 Worple Road
Wimbledon
SW19 4JS

[LSP]

Can't say I am surprised.

I hate to think what the impact of this rubbish being sent to China (where my late father was born) would do to the environment there. Almost a year ago, I wrote this (see 28th and 22nd December entries): http://organically.blogspot.com/2005_12 ... chive.html

Indeed there is a lot of 'greenwashing' these days. Let's wise up to the supermarket PR campaigns.

[Shirley]

I asked our council what they did with the plastic bottles that they collect and they said that they all go to a place in Scotland that turns them into fleeces and that they don't send any overseas.

[Enormous Sage]

Waste plastic can be processed and turned into a high grade diesel / heating fuel fairly easily and economically (if a proper collection and distribution system was put in place).
I know this doesn't solve the CO2 emissions / carbon cycle problem, but it would at least solve the problem of having millions of tons of waste plastic.

[Smooth Hound]

the only reason that the plastics and polluting companies in many cases are there is because they are owned by , western countries, the reason they are in these countries is for cheap labour and because we dont want the pollution in this country or the western world, an example of this is the pva companies that send the plastic that is to be recycled over to china/ india to be transformed into a chip form where there rivers and land are being literally poisoned, only then to be bought back over here to be turned into other products, this is done to avoid polution in our countries, so we are not really in a position to point the finger there really,although every where you go you here whats the point in being green and recycling when the chinese and india are polluting the way they do anyway. i wonder if these peoplecan think aat all sometimes. the ironic thing is is that our govt gives grants to firms that make use of this recycled product, so in a sense we encourage it. we even buy these things because they say recycled products on the wrapper, they real;ly do take the biscuit ,

did anyone see the program with steven fry , he was talking about the largest dump in the world, a place in the middle of the pacific the size of texas, that is swirling around thick with plastic and alsorts,

[Silver Ether]

I had a fab carrier given to me the other day while at the food festival in Ludlow... my own bags were all in use ... shopped for lots of lovely foody things And my fella wanted sausages from the van on the market square ... When I was unpacking at home I noticed it had a wonderful texture, it felt like silk on inspection it was 100% biodegradable... I have reused it a lot ... and it is now starting to shred As it doesnt say how it bio degrades I thought about popping it into the composter to see what happens to it ... would it upset the balence of my bin.

I hand any excess not that I get many bags into charity shops or market traders/carbooters to use them.