Why only plastic bottles
Somerset Waste Partnership collections at the kerbside and recycling sites can only accept household plastic bottles for recycling, but not pots, tubs, trays or film as end-use markets for these are limited. And no bottle tops please.
Why not other types of plastics
The reason we only collect plastic bottles is that most UK reprocessors are currently only able to sort and supply plastic bottles to manufacturers for recycling and the end-users for other types of plastics are limited. The market situation appears to be slowly starting to change and a few plastic sorters are accepting other types of household plastic, but the end-use markets for other plastics are still very limited and most reprocessors are still only able to accept plastic bottles.
Even when other types of container are labelled as being made from the same type of plastic, the grade may be different and the two cannot be recycled together, which, for instance, is the case with bottles and microwave trays made from PET. However, even if they were the same grade, reprocessors are not able yet to sort out all the different types of plastics. This situation is further complicated because even the same packaging can be made from different materials; so, for instance, some yoghurt pots are made from PS and some are now made using PET.
Unfortunately, some recycling symbols on plastics do not provide a guide to whether they can be recycled, just to the type of plastic.
Somerset Waste Partnership continues to review the opportunities for collecting other or mixed plastics and will add these to our collections if this can be afforded and there are reliable end-use markets available, preferably in the UK.
But, at the moment, our message is simple and we can only taken plastic bottles. The only exceptions, due to their previous contents, are plastic bottles used for garden or DIY chemicals or engine oil, which should be excluded. Otherwise, we can take all types of plastic bottle.
Why no bottle tops
Tops are often a different type of plastic to the bottle. They also cause problems when baling plastic bottles, as some bottles are so strong that with tops on they cannot be flattened, even in an industrial baler. The pressure from baled bottles with tops on can cause bales to burst open, so that they have to be baled again, adding to costs and creating handling difficulties.