How to reduce waste and cost of plastics
To reduce waste and cost of plastics you can do many things. For example: don't put those black bin liners in your bin, just put your rubbish straight into it and take it to your larger Council. Stop the smell by giving the bin a quick rinse and reusing the water on your garden. Or, alternatively you could cover the inside of your bin with newspapers so they get recycled too and you don't have to use plastics.
Reducing the number of plastic bags you use can be a problem, but you can help reduce plastic bags at convenience stores, take away food shops and mainly supermarkets. Supermarkets account for 53% of single use plastic shopping bags. Keeping a reusable bag in your car or handbag to use, if you have bought a lot tell the supermarket to pack your food in cardboard boxes, as cardboard boxes can be easily recycled than many plastic bags, and many more.
How to reduce harm plastic causes
Some plastic bags can be returned to your supermarket for recycling and many large supermarkets have recycling facilities. Turn bags inside out and remove any receipts and food before recycling as contamination can cause problems in production and stop recycled plastic from being used. If you have a dog don't collect the poo in a plastic bags:
- Use a recycled paper bag
- Wrap it up in old newspaper
- Use a biodegradable dog poo bag.
To help stop harm from plastics being caused remember this: Refuse, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle plastics whenever possible. For example, if you throw a plastic bag away, tie it in a knot so animals cant get in.
Why recycling isn't always a solution
Recycling isn't always a solution as although polymers can be burnt and release a lot of heat energy when they burn which can be used to heat homes and generate electricity. However, there are problems with incineration; CO2 is produced, which adds to global warming and toxic gases are produced unless the polymers are burnt at high temperatures, which requires more heat energy.
Still many polymers can be recycled, which reduces disposal problems. But, different polymers have to be separated from each other before burning, and this is hard and very expensive to do. Another thing is that polymers are un-reactive allowing them to store food, chemicals, etc. this makes it extremely difficult to destroy it.
Most polymers, such as polythene (polyethylene) and polypropene (polypropylene) are not biodegradable. If something is not biodegradable then micro-organisms cannot break them down, so they last for years in rubbish dumps. However, it is possible to include chemicals that cause the polymer to break down quicker. Plastic bags are recycled in a mixed plastics process to make garden stakes, garden furniture, garden sleepers, flower pots and new plastic bags.
