Forum Topic

JULY for a month try to use NO PLASTIC

Take the Marine Conservation Society's 'Plastic Challenge' to try and detox your life - read the front page article.   I shall be trying to abide by this - sounds quite hard when you actually look into it.I am curious, I have a box of plastic stem cotton buds.  I will buy new ones with card or paper stems but how do I dispose of the plastic ones?   Is it safe to assume that they will be burnt in the black bin bag rubbish and not cause too much harm to the environment.   Not sure about toothpaste though?  Is it the paste or the plastic tube or both and what to replace them with?   Toothbrushes are there wooden handled ones that are any good?   Also Picksters, for digging between teeth, they are plastic.   Is dental floss another item that should not be used?   I had assumed that the bulk of my plastic was the soft fruit trays but now I'm not so sure.   My milk comes in glass bottles though.

Jennifer Selig ● 2773d18 Comments

An awful lot of WATER is needed in the production of paper bags.  There is no magic swap.  We ourselves need to get a grip and be more careful and take our own reusable bags with us when we shop.  If we forget then we should expect to have to pay if we cannot make do. We are told not to put plastic carrier bags in our plastics recycling yet we still see them there and people are too lazy to tip their cans out of the carrier bag they used to take them to the recycling bank. Some of them eg the thicker orange Sainsbury's ones say that they will be replaced free of charge by Sainsbury's when they are no longer fit for purpose.  They must be too cheap to buy - so maybe the price charged for them should be doubled and maybe more of them should be charged for as they are in the rest of the UK.  What is the matter with England?If they stood on those cans first - particularly aluminium ones - then an awful lot more would fit in the bag on the way to the recycling bank/in the recycling box.Why can't people peel the plastic film off in particular the see-through plastic fruit boxes and only recycle the plastic box? 

Philippa Bond ● 2764d

Warning - Joke : How does using a debit card to pay (plastic) compare to £5 or £10 note, or should I restrict myself to £20 notes an coins?Seriously though, a consumer led boycott is likely to be slow. I am constantly irritated by the recycling rules. Can it can't it? Where is the label *sigh*I would rather tax non recyclable materials at production/importation as a whole, not just force supermarkets to charge 5p for a 0.5p bag and let them decide what to do with the profits.Why are there still no paper bags?

Christopher Gillie ● 2767d

I heard that small businesses were springing up to clean wheelie bins.  Surely it is up to me to keep the bin clean?  If I am putting something messy in the bin then I could bag that up with other messy items maybe using a small carrier type bag.  At the moment I am placing all our rubbish into plastic bags and that includes all the dry, clean stuff.If a bin bag leaks I still clean the bottom of the bin when I can see that it needs a wash.  A swirl of water with washing up liquid does the trick.  If we really have to use bin bags then why not allow us to buy biodegradable ones at a competitive price from the Concil?

Sarah Felstead ● 2768d

I know what you mean. I guess the biggest problem is that the plastic stemmed cotton buds themselves appear to be one of the items which can get through our sewage system. into the seas and rivers.  I presume the box can't.  Really good to see them being replaced on the shelves.https://www.citytosea.org.uk/

Philippa Bond ● 2768d

I was pleased to see cotton buds with paper stems in Wilko, until I noticed that the plastic box they came in was marked "not currently recycled".

Virginia Fassnidge ● 2768d

There is a man who comes around and cleans your bin with a high pressure hose in Staines. I expect there is one in Brentford. You can also have a sort of industrial perfume sprayed in it.

Nicholas Beard ● 2770d

This threat is about PLASTICS, not cotton wool!Sarah - why we have to bag household waste into plastic bags before placing it in the wheelie bin...  ...  ...To keep the wheelie bin clean inside I think.  It's not a simple job hosing out one of those giants and assumes you have access to a hosepipe and are strong and fit enough to do it - many are not.  Now there's another good job for the Council - on a rota system, say 10 streets at a time (not sure how many wheelies you can get on a lorry), why don't LBH collect the dirty bins, replace them with  clean ones and roll out this system, street by street across the Borough.  The Council has great strong water jets that could clean out the dirty bin in no time enabling them to be re-usd over and over again.

Jennifer Selig ● 2770d

Can the cotton pull off off of the stick? That is what causes the trouble as well.

Nicholas Beard ● 2771d

The latest design of the cotton wool bud has a ring of cotton wool around it to make it mpossible to push the bud too far into the ear canal ...having said that ...the stem is still plastic!What I don’t understand is why we have to bag household waste into plastic bags before placing it in the wheelie bin...  ...  ...

Sarah Felstead ● 2771d

I was speaking to nurse in casualty and that is what she told me. The cotton comes off and stays in the ear. Casualty then remove it.

Nicholas Beard ● 2771d

Nicholas, what silly b...er pokes anything smaller than a finger into an ear?  However, the cotton bod belongs to the idiot, not to the NHS so it's not the NHS wasting money on cotton buds.  Find it hard to believe that millions of people are going to the NHS with this problem.

Jennifer Selig ● 2771d

I meant in treatment of ears in casualty due to mishaps with cotton buds.

Nicholas Beard ● 2772d

Cotton buds are costing the NHS too much basically.What's this huge expense - is it the plastic, soon to be card or wood, stems or is it the actual cotton wool?  Cotton buds can only be a tiny portion of the huge NHS budget.  I use them to clean smudged mascara - a packet lasts me well over a year.  What are the NHS using them for?

Jennifer Selig ● 2773d

Just to clarify, virtually 0% of LBH waste and recycling ends up in landfill. It is all either recycled or incinerated (the latter at the Severnside Incinerator -http://www.sita.co.uk/news/operations-begin-at-severnside-energy-recovery-centre-marking-an-end-to-landfill-for-west-londons-waste/)The only exceptions are certain special materials such as asbestos - for obvious reasons needing specialised disposal.

Guy Lambert ● 2773d

Cotton buds are costing the NHS too much basically. Not just here but in other countries to.

Nicholas Beard ● 2773d

Cotton buds may be banned soon.  What even the ones with wood or card stems?  Why?    Is Detinox something you poke about with between your teeth and if so regardless of the metal handle, what are the "bristly bits" made of?  They do have to be bristly to remove the plaque and wriggle down below the gum line.

Jennifer Selig ● 2773d

The onus should be on manufacturers to find alternatives to plastic in their packaging - we must presssure to cause change.

Martin Case ● 2773d

Cotton buds may be banned soon. Tooth brushes are a good point. I dont floss I use dentinox recomended by my hygenist. Aluminium handle.

Nicholas Beard ● 2773d