Why am I seeing don’t recycle at home more often?

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FalconUK17@reddit

It's really easy to put aside most soft plastics. Much of it is clean and doesn't need any extra cleaning. We recycle everything that isn't heavily contaminated and drop it off at Tesco in the cage by the front door. Our black bin is rarely more than half full and is only collected every two weeks. Whether it's burned at the moment isn't the point (okay it's disappointing) - if it's segregated, a choice can be made now or in the future. If it's all mixed, those choices can't be made.

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DP4546@reddit

Would you pay for a monthly subscription service where you pay a company to pick up your hard to recycle items?

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klanny@reddit

Manufacturers thinking ‘less plastic is better’ even though the plastic is the thin shite which you can’t recycle at home, whereas the old plastic trays you could.

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gander8622@reddit

There is a cage just at the front door of our local Tesco that you chuck these bags into. It's great and shockingly since we've been doing this our general waste bin is still quite empty after 2 weeks. Shame it can't be done kerbside.

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iwanttobeyrcanary@reddit

Councils should be recycling soft plastic at kerbside by 2027!

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Awkward_Chain_7839@reddit

We already have 8 bins (refuse, cardboard, cans and hard plastic, paper, glass, batteries, food, garden waste), the pavement is already impassable on refuse collection day. I guarantee they’ll add another separate bin instead of in with the existing plastics so they have to sort them!

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Disgruntled__Goat@reddit

By "should", do you mean that's your opinion? Or that it will be a requirement by 2027?

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iwanttobeyrcanary@reddit

It’s government policy, a quick google can confirm.

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Disgruntled__Goat@reddit

I already tried and didn’t find anything concrete.

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iwanttobeyrcanary@reddit

[gov.uk simpler recycling in England](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/simpler-recycling-in-england-policy-update/simpler-recycling-in-england-policy-update) Bullet point 4 under timelines!

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cmdrxander@reddit

I dread to think how much of it will get blown everywhere! I much prefer taking it to the supermarket, but I appreciate that’s not convenient for everyone

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FEMXIII@reddit

If they were sticking with the supermarket distributed collection model, they should the supermarkets do a collection with every delivery for people who can't get to the supermarket, but I'm glad to hear it will be kerbside tbh.

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quellflynn@reddit

apparently they do for the people who have home deliveries.

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FEMXIII@reddit

I think Ocado will collect their own bags, I’ve not heard of any others doing it.

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BellisPer@reddit

Morrisons will take their bags back (and refund 10p per bag)

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FEMXIII@reddit

Do they take other plastics though? That’s what we really need!

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Tazmandoogle@reddit

Tesco home delivery used to take plastics back but ppl started taking the p by including other stuff so they stopped the service. Sainsbury's the same. I use the big cages in the supermarkets as it helps keep other waste down a lot.

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FEMXIII@reddit

I feel like we’ve gone in a circle here! The supermarket drop off is great IF you can get to a supermarket! Glory be the day we can recycle soft plastics at home!

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Spiklething@reddit

Our council already recycles this, we have been doing it for around a year now. As a family of four adults, we filled the bin to the top as it is only collected every four weeks. However, we were given an extra bin for free and now, as we split the waste evenly between the two, it does not seem to get blown around at all and this is the same for the rest of the street. And I live in Scotland which gets more wind than other places

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cmdrxander@reddit

That sounds good. In Bristol we have paper/glass one one box (no lid), plastic/metal in another box (also no lid) and cardboard in a bag. Stuff gets blown everywhere unless you’re clever with stacking or putting glass on top of paper, etc.

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some_learner@reddit

Bristol's system has got to be one of the worst in the whole country, rubbish all over the streets!

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1968Bladerunner@reddit

I always stick a half-brick on my bin lid at kerbside, seems to keep it steady 99% of the time.

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DickensCide-r@reddit

We've been able to recycle them all for about a year. No signs of increased litter but we were given bins rather than boxes. The recycling fills up A LOT quicker now though.

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IAmDyspeptic@reddit

My problem is that I keep forgetting to take it with me. Recycling at home would be so much easier.

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OG-GeneralCarrots@reddit

r/unexpectedfactorial

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RaspberryJammm@reddit

That would be good. I'm housebound and do all my shopping online so end up chucking out loads of soft plastics it's really annoying. My council don't even take glass so I give it all to my family the next county over to put in their bins.

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ShotInTheBrum@reddit

It's crazy how much stuff we put in that cage each week. My only complaint is our local supermarket don't empty them enough. It's always chocker and hard to add much more.

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Puzzleheaded_Drink76@reddit

Same! Although last night's was great. But that's rare. I wonder how often it gets emptied and hence how much they are really collecting.

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Beartato4772@reddit

If I didn't have cats you could probably empty my general waste bin about twice a year.

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SnooBooks1701@reddit

I lived in one council (Exeter) that recycled soft plastics (but only some of them, like bread bags, apple bags etc but not crinkly ones like salad bags or rice bags) but they didn't recycle glass, you still had to take that to a bottle bank

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External-Piccolo-626@reddit

Exactly. There’s not much that does go in our bin to be honest. It probably was mostly plastic packaging.

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MoodyBernoulli@reddit

I didn’t go looking for the video, but I recently read a comment about some YouTuber who put a tracker in a bag and put it into one of these supermarket recycling bins. It apparently ended up in a landfill in Turkey or something.

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porrig1@reddit

Same at our Tesco. We drop stuff off at least once a week now.

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scromby@reddit

Well they want to hide the fact that all they do is burn it anyway, no matter if it’s at home or at a supermarket recycling.

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Anxious-Molasses9456@reddit

companies pretending their things are recyclable when its actually not, at least to the normal household

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Callum-H@reddit

They are usually burned as an alternative fuel source

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Educational-Bench654@reddit

This bar runs on trash, dude. This bar is totally green that way

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freexe@reddit

That's actually much better than burying the waste. At least it's being used

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KingDaveRa@reddit

Just like our rubbish is anyway (here in Bucks at least)... So I chuck them in the bin, hardly worth the effort. Considering we generate a lot of energy from gas and oil, burning stuff doesn't seem so crazy as it's doing something useful. That said the vast majority of our waste goes to recycling.

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SilyLavage@reddit

We take our plastic bags to the local Aldi when we do a shop. It could hardly be simpler, really.

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SurDno@reddit

shouldn't you just wash those before recycling?

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cragglerock93@reddit

Pretending it's recyclable... by telling you exactly where to recycle it? It's a scandal! The national lottery told me to take my scratchcard to a shop to get my winnings. Absolute outrage. Is it even winnings if I can't get it at home?

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flatfishkicker@reddit

Our local air ambulance takes crisp packets, dry pet food sacks and various other non traditional recyclables. What they do with them I'm not sure but it helps them raise money. So they do serve some purpose other than landfill.

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Puzzleheaded_Drink76@reddit

Large Sainsbury's have a bin or a cage out the front. I always wonder how much of it gets sent off to be recycled (whatever that means...) compared to how much soft plastic the store uses wrapping cages and the like and is that sorted. Anyone here work for them?

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ColdAppointment3917@reddit

Plastic you can squash can't be recycled at home, there are terracycle points in most supermarkets now - think that's the spelling. So it's either bin it or take it to the shop and believe me people bring bags into my work

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Fudge_is_1337@reddit

Some areas are rolling it out as a distinct waste stream. Our council now collects soft plastics (bagged up separately but placed inside the main recycling bin)

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StarShipYear@reddit

Dumb question, but what does "squash" mean in this context? For example, if I can squash something like a plastic container then it can't be recycled? I'm having a hard time thinking of something plastic that I *wouldn't* be able to squash.

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ColdAppointment3917@reddit

Hope this helps if you scrunch it up tight - if it pings back, it’s a useful indicator it's soft plastic.

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ColdAppointment3917@reddit

So bread packaging, crisp packets, fruit punnets, biscuit packets, pet food packets

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TitanFlood@reddit

So basically 90% of what I've been recycling at home since day 1 wasn't recyclable? That's disconcerting...

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OK_TimeForPlan_L@reddit

Most plastic even called 'recyclable' doesn't even end up getting recycled anyway so I wouldn't worry yourself too much just make sure you sort your glass/metal/paper recycling properly.

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chabybaloo@reddit

no idea, every council is different. Best to check on their website. My council have a obsession about yougurt pots. (Not to put them in the recycling) I think they have changed the rules now, but i forgot what items.

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quellflynn@reddit

every packet has recycling information on it. you just need to look!

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Dando_Calrisian@reddit

"StarShipYear smash"

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DameKumquat@reddit

Basically there's what can be generally recycled at your home (depending on council), which is plastic bottles and trays - they will have a 1,2, or 5 in the wee triangle of arrows. Kinda firm plastic things, but not shit toys and stuff. Stretchy plastic like plastic bags can be collected and recycled or more likely burnt to recover energy, but it's only worth massing it in certain places, like supermarkets, to collect for processing. Now more supermarkets have joined a network for recycling that, more manufacturers are telling you on the packaging that you can take it there.

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Steddy_Eddy@reddit

You're right about everything else but the numbers only represent material type. 1 for example is PET. This can be found as drinks bottles (Very recyclable) but also the crinkly film lid on your microwave lasagne( technically recyclable but a pain in the arse to handle so deemed not)

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ColdAppointment3917@reddit

https://preview.redd.it/6fapeq52jnte1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=99990d3a3c773fe3ecdda366c3841be1808b39cd

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Spiklething@reddit

It can where I live. We have been given new bins to put recycling plastic in, including squashable plastics. This has been in place since Novemeber 2023

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smmky@reddit

I actively see this as a “just bin it” logo

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Big-Committee-3056@reddit (OP)

I kind of agree. We have limited space for recycling as it is but we make the effort. But storing this all week before heading to the supermarket…..

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Beartato4772@reddit

It scrunches, I store mine in a cat food bag and I can fit the 6 weeks of soft plastics in there which matches the time it takes to use the next cat food bag.

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eXceSSum9@reddit

Just chuck it into one of the bigger packets and keep it in your shopping bags? That way you'll definitely have it to throw away at the supermarket

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smmky@reddit

I’m bad enough at remembering to take the shopping bags, nevermind the shopping bag that’s filled with that shite.

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sjmellor@reddit

It shouldn’t take up too much room - it is thin plastics that you can pack into a bigger bag easily. Something the size of an old carrier bag can hold more than you might think. A family might fill one a week, if that?

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smmky@reddit

It’ll just be forgotten about and thrown out eventually. It’s all about convenience, either change the packaging to suit or accept it with the general plastic recycling waste.

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Beartato4772@reddit

My Sainsburys and Tesco both have such an area.

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Swimming_Possible_68@reddit

You can't recycle them in your home bin because of the fact it will be multiple mixed materials (paper, plastic containers, tins) in your bin. The way recycling facilities separate materials currently means it's really hard to effectively separate flexible plastics, meaning they may end up in the paper recycling streams if this happens then effectively it ruins all of that recyclate. There is a push to get kerbside collections of flexible plastics for 2027, but this has already been pushed back from 2025 a couple of years ago. As for supermarket facilities, I'm really surprised you haven't seen them. My local co-op has a soft plastics collection bin, my local Aldi and Lidl it is literally as you go in the door. Same with my local M&S food.

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DennisTheConvict@reddit

Sainsbury's have them. It's a big metal cage filled with bags. https://help.sainsburys.co.uk/help/terms-and-conditions/phc-recycling

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True-Abalone-3380@reddit

Small items and soft plastics such as film covers and portion bags are too small and light to go through the recycling sorting process. They fly about and get stuck in the machinery. They are recyclable but need to be pre-sorted and collected together, that's why the supermarkets can do it as they put it all in one big bundle for processing. Because of the packaging taxes producers are trying to take as much weight out of packaging as possible which means more if it is harder to recycle.

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MartiniHenry577450@reddit

The price of granulated plastics has gone through the roof in the last 10 years so they will probably process and sell it. HDPE is a hard plastic and granulated it sells for up to £800 per tonne as of March 25

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pehztv@reddit

they throw it all in the same hole anyway, recycling is a farce and we're so small and insignificant we dont make a difference when you can convince china and india to do their part i might take it a bit more seriously

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HeverAfter@reddit

Thoroughly recommend the Netflix documentary Buy Now: The Shopping Conspiracy. It has a really good section on the "recycling" at supermarkets and homes

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Ok-Refrigerator4092@reddit

Our small local coop takes it, very handy

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requisition31@reddit

Most councils have decided it's not profitable to recyle that type of plastic.

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Robajonk@reddit

Check your local council website. They may be able to take certain types in your normal recycling i.e. bread bags, freezer bags. This is what mine says: https://exeter.gov.uk/bins-and-recycling/recycling/recycling-plastic-bags-and-film/

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quellflynn@reddit

EVERY large supermarket has soft plastic collections... usually a delivery trolley by the front doors.

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PomPomBumblebee@reddit

I've started to keep a large reusable bag for life next to my bin and recycling just for the soft plastics like film, bags etc that it suggests and I take it to one of my supermarkets when it gets full. It has definitely helped keep the rubbish down but I still don't have a good solution for food waste. Our workplace has been made to have more recycling options and so far it's been going well (we had this before COVID then all the separate bins disappeared when lockdown happened) but someone filled the entire food waste bucket with cooked spaghetti they, for some reason, did not eat. We don't have a food waste collection for our flat and we don't have space or distance to keep a compost heap which would help with some of the waste. Does anyone successfully recycle or separate their food waste for collection?

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Mr_Reaper__@reddit

Its a soft rollout of flexible plastic recycling. By 2027 this type of plastic will be collected curbside along with all other recycling. The recycling infrastructure for this plastic is still being ramped up though so the government is slowly building up the system by limiting the quantities that are getting recycled (by making it harder to recycle because you have to remember to take it to the shop to recycle and leaving the bins after they get full so people aren't able to fill them as much). We're moving in the right direction, but introducing a whole new waste stream that needs to be managed takes time.

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Artistic_Data9398@reddit

Some packaging like bread bags, crisp packets, and certain types of plastic wrap, are labelled "Recycle with Bags at Large Supermarkets" or "Don't Recycle at Home" because they require specialized recycling processes and cannot be recycled through standard household collection methods.

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mouldy-baps@reddit

I used to spend so much time and effort making sure to sort my soft plastics and taking them to the supermarket until I came across multiple stories about soft plastics being tracked and a lot of it just ends up in landfill half way across the world. Apparently only a very small percentage of soft plastics are actually recycled. Pretty disheartening. I only stopped though because none of my local supermarkets accept soft plastics.

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Dependent_Lemon3058@reddit

The trackers that people put into the soft plastics get screened out as part of the process because they aren’t soft plastic, so can’t be recycled in the same process. This doesn’t mean the plastic that the trackers were in isn’t recycled. It does mean the people investigating it aren’t doing a thorough job of understanding the process to get accurate results because that doesn’t get clicks that the negative articles do. The soft plastic market has been on its arse lately, which might be why none of your locals are taking it. There are more processors setting up in the UK, so hopefully we’ll be in a position soon where it all gets recycled locally. Fingers crossed.

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NotOnlyMyEyeIsLazy@reddit

Most council recycling systems can't process the type of plastic these bags are made of and if it enters the recycling system it reduces the quality of the recycled plastic. In supermarkets try looking for a "recycle your old bags" bin near the exit (this is where they are in my local Tesco) - this is normally where this plastic gets put. This [article](https://www.recyclenow.com/how-to-recycle/recycle-plastic-bags-and-wrapping#What-kind-of-bags-and-wrapping-can-be-recycled) has some more information.

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amacadabra@reddit

The soft plastics taken to supermarkets is mostly burned - 70% burned and 30% downcycled. None is close-loop recycled. Needs to get better.

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Silvagadron@reddit

Previously this would have just said “not yet recycled”. Large supermarkets should have a cage just past the checkouts where you can chuck your bag of recycling.

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PicturePrevious8723@reddit

I have a separate plastic bag which I stick all my soft plastics in. Every two weeks I take it to Tesco and chuck it in the plastic recycling cage they have out front. Every large supermarket will have one, you just haven't noticed it. I'm not sure what happens after that. It probably gets burned, but that's better than being shipped to a third-world country or ending up in the sea.

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No-Drink-8544@reddit

It honestly feels so good, almost like a videogame, for me to recycle every single piece of plastic I can that I get at home. For soft bags with this supermarket logo, I have a large carrier bag under the sink. If it's plastic packaging that is soft but for some reason says "don't recycle" then I put that in another separate pile of plastics. Any undefined plastics from like, stuff I buy also goes with this pile of non-recycle plastic. I try to keep all of this plastic away from food or dirt, and bag it up separately even though I still put it in the rubbish, I don't know what the government has planned to deal with this sort of plastic, landfills, etc, it's like the great crisis of our species honestly.

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rossburton@reddit

Pro-tip: bread bags can hold a vast amount of plastic when crushed in, and when full can be tied shut. Perfect for storing it all up.

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Spiklething@reddit

Where I live, these items can go into household waste. New bins were issued to us in November 2023 and can take the following * **Plastics:** * Rinsed and squashed plastic food and drinks bottles. * Plastic toiletry and cleaning bottles. * Plastic tablet and medicine bottles. * Pots, tubs, and trays. * Lids and tops (keep attached). * Yoghurt pots. * **Soft Plastics (unbagged):** * Crisp packets. * Empty plastic bags. * Empty black bags. * Fruit and veg nets. * Films, e.g., ready meal films. * Bread bags. * Sweet wrappers. * Cling film. * Bubble wrap. * **Metals:** * Empty and rinsed cans and tins. * **Cartons:** * Tetra packs and other drinks cartons. * **Foil**

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Big-Committee-3056@reddit (OP)

What adds to my annoyance with this is that Asda has just replaced the packaging. I believe the old packaging could be recycled at home. 🤦🏼‍♂️

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voyacomerlo@reddit

It *might* be that the old recyclable packaging reduced the shelf life and led to more food waste, which is environmentally worse than the non-recyclable packaging going to landfill. But without knowing the ins and outs I wouldn't say that's a cert.

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The-Lemon040@reddit

It is annoying! Something feels off about driving my car to the supermarket in order to recycle too.

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VolcanicBear@reddit

The trick is to do it at the same time as shopping.

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Masschan@reddit

Or in my case leave it in the boot of the car until I put the groceries in after I’ve finished my shop, swear profusely and say I’ll move it next time. Then drive it home again.

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VolcanicBear@reddit

Ah, see I personally just go for "continually forget and keep finding a bigger bag."

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GrouchyAlps612@reddit

We take a huge bag of stuff to our local Tesco extra every month.

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geeered@reddit

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmGrI\_BVlnc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmGrI_BVlnc) \- where it may well end up when you 'recycle' it.

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annedroiid@reddit

My local tesco has the bag collection outside the doors, although it’s easy to miss

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binarygoatfish@reddit

Just chuck it in with your recycling and forget about it. It all ends up on a beach in some third world country.

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bloodandglory31@reddit

[Morrisons and Aldi normally for us but this link should help](https://www.recyclenow.com/repeat-the-cycle)

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JunkAlchemy78@reddit

Yet another little task we have to do for others, while paying the ol' tax dollaroonies.

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LeoDemiurg1@reddit

While film and flexibles are mostly recyclable, and even valuable (e.g. PE film), it can hardly be recovered when it enters sorting facility as part of the dry mix. It messes up the sorting process quite badly - damages equipment, results in blockages, reduces recovery rates of other materials, etc. When film is collected as a single stream it can be sent to film recycling plant directly.

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Chev--Chelios@reddit

These used to just say 'don't recycle' as far as I'm aware most local authorities don't take soft plastics like vegetable wrapping, but supermarkets often do, hence the new labeling.

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schmauften@reddit

Both my nearest Sainsbury's and Waitrose have soft plastics recycling bins. Home recycling has only ever accepted hard plastic.

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