Struggling to understand the symbols on the packaging? Check out the Plastic Symbols page!
Can’t recycle the plastic? Make an Ecobrick!
What is an Ecobrick? An Ecobrick is a bottle filled with plastic, which can then be used in the same fashion as a normal brick to build things. It sequesters plastic out of the biosphere which is great for wildlife! Check out their website here.
How do I prepare the plastic? You can use styrofoam, bags, packaging, straws, and cellophane. Make sure the plastic you use is clean and dry.
Choosing a bottle. Choose a small bottle for your first one as they take a while to fill, and if you have a plan about what you are going to do with the Ecobrick try to use the same shape of plastic bottle each time.
What can’t I put in the Ecobrick? Don’t put any metal, paper, glass, or biodegradable material.
Packing the bottle. Find a good wooden stick (like the handle of a wooden spoon) to pack down the plastic, this is best done by pushing sideways or upwards to make sure you don’t dent the dimples. Choose a coloured piece of plastic as the first piece (to fill the first 1 – 2cm of the bottle), meaning that people can create colourful designs with the Ecobricks. Fill the bottle, alternating between soft and hard plastics to increase the density of the bottle- you may have to cut up the hard plastic to be able to pack it tightly. When you are around halfway through filling the bottle, use 2 – 3cm of light coloured plastic to make it easy to add a clearly-visible label to the bottle. Make sure the bottle is not overflowing with plastic pushed up against the lid.
How much plastic do you need to use? The bottle may be used for structural construction, so needs to meet a minimum density. This equates to around 500g for a 1500ml bottle and 200g for a 600ml bottle.
Minimum Ecobrick Weight = Bottle Volume x 0.33
What do you do when you’ve finished? Log your brick at GoBrik.com so you can see how your community is doing! Label the bottle with white paper or a black marker, listing your name, the date, the intended community project, the serial number (generated by the GoBrik App), and the final weight. Then either give the brick to a project, or use it for your own building project! Next step: start building your second Ecobrick…
Why is recycling plastic so confusing?
Recycling plastic seems to have so many different rules in different areas. The BBC have recently written a great article on this, if you want more than this short summary!
If you think this is completely ridiculous, then check out the draft letter I’ve written that you can send to your local MP.
As you can see below there are lot of places that collect plastic bottles, but its a postcode lottery as to whether you’ll be able to recycle that black plastic tray you have or the plastic films covering so many food items.
All this is so confusing that its not a surprise that general waste is often mixed with recycling, or the wrong plastics are going in the recycling bin.
I am hoping this page will help explain what can be recycled, but this will only really get simpler if the UK adopts a more widespread, general approach. The government is proposing several ways to tackle these problems so hopefully we’ll see improvement soon!
sustainellie 