Kerbside Collection Improvements – At Last!
We always look out for changes and developments in household waste collections. Which sounds a bit nerdy but it’s for good reason. We want it to be as easy as possible for everyone to be able to recycle bread bags and the little tape seals. The seals are 100% recyclable and most bread bags are made of polythene or polyethylene. You can identify what type of packaging your bread is in by the recycling info label on the bag. Most bagged bread comes in polythene bags which is labelled as LDPE or PE or with a recycle symbol containing the number 4. If you aren’t sure if the plastic bag is polyethylene or not a simple test is to screw it up in your hand. It should feel soft and screw up easily rather than harder, crinkly and noisy. Once you release it from your hand, a polyethylene bag will usually stay at least half screwed up whereas crinkly bags will try to go back to their original shape.
In the UK, there is a huge variety of what can go in your home recycling bin from council to council and area to area. Polythene bread bags is one of the items that is poorly collected nationwide so it was delightful to see that Leeds Council have sent out a leaflet explaining what can go in the recycling bin. In Leeds these are green bins but I appreciate this is not a consistent indicator of the recycling bin in all parts of the UK! Now there’s a thought, what if the councils all had the same bin colours……?!?!! Anyway, back to the point again. We were delighted to see that the leaflet now says they collect bread bags!! This is a new addition to their collectables and shows that recycling is improving slowly. Have you looked recently to check what can go in your recycling bin? It may have improved too.
Leeds Leaflet. Bread bags allowed, pity there isn’t an image of one!
It’s worth checking whether your local authority accept bread bags in the recycling. If they don’t then please remember you can take them to the carrier bag recycling point in your big supermarket and they can be recycled there.
Thanks to recyclenow for this definitive list of what plastics can be recycled at carrier bag recycling bins at most of the large stores at Asda, Co-op, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose. Please note though, the resealable seal of your bread bag can stay stuck to the bag. It does not compromise the recyclability of the bag even though it is made of PP because it is less than 2% of the total packaging. Worth knowing.
