Plastic Recycling – what can be recycled and how?

best-ways-to-recycle-and-reduce-plastic-waste

There are many treasures in our waste: raw materials and other reusables that can be recycled. That’s why we separate and sort our rubbish and so that metal, glass and paper is collected. This creates a cycle that spares our environment. However, separating plastic is much more difficult, which is why our planet is suffering from huge amounts of plastic waste polluting our oceans and other parts of the world.

Recycling, i.e., the recycling of waste, is simple in itself: old glass bottles, for example, are melted down and new bottles are made of them. With glass, this is not a problem. Even with metals such as tin cans, aluminium parts or copper cables, it is relatively easy to recover the recyclable materials from the waste. So is paper.

Unfortunately, with our favourite plastic packaging material, it is much more difficult to return the plastic to a cycle and recycle the material.

Problem Case Plastic Waste

There are a lot of different plastics and not all can be recycled. Whether plastic can be reused can be checked by the recycling sign embossed on the bottom of the packaging, for example: a triangle of arrows with letters in the middle. It might say “PET”. This is the abbreviation for a particular type of plastic.

With so-called “hard plastic” the recycling still works relatively well. It is abbreviated with the letters “HDPE” or “PP” on the recycling sign.

Cleaning buckets, laundry baskets, watering cans or garden chairs are made of this material. The old or broken plastic items are shredded into small pieces and melted to create new plastic items. Also, easy to recycle are the softer plastic types “PET” and “LDPE”.

The Natural Society recommends the following:

Avoid recycling symbols 3, 6, and 7. While Number 1 is considered safe, it is also best to avoid this plastic.

Look for symbols 2, 4, and 5, as these plastics are considered to be safest. These are the plastics to look for in terms of human and animal consumption.

The best way forward is to reduce plastic waste altogether and choose glass or reusable metal containers.

Plastic must be sorted adequately

Plastic waste is sorted very laboriously on an assembly line by hand in recycling centres.

For good recycling of plastic packaging, it is important to separate the different plastic types adequately. This is especially true when different materials have been closely linked: for beverage cartons, for cardboard cups with a plastic coating and for many other packaging. Here, paper, plastic and metal foils are welded together and it is almost impossible to completely separate them from each other again. All these “composites” must be incinerated to a large extent as waste.

Last Stop: Waste Incineration

Anything that is not properly separated is incinerated in the waste kiln, including the so-called bulky waste: this may include painted wood as well as a broken sofa or old skis, which causes more pollution and toxic fumes. Therefore, separating and recycling recyclable materials is important and the experts at London Rubbish Removal know exactly how to do this with any rubbish they collect, be it household waste, office waste or garden waste.

But it is just as important not to create so much waste in the first place. This includes not simply throwing everything away. Many recycling centres accept well-preserved items so that they can be resold cheaply by the municipality, for example furniture or electrical appliances. At London Rubbish Removal they work closely with the best recycling centres in London to ensure that the man and van rubbish collections in London they make are sorted and recycled as required for optimal waste management.

Besides plastic recycling, they ensure all these other materials they collect are also adequately recycled as they are a licenced waste carrier:

Metals: All metals are recycled at the metal recycling plant. It is chipped into small pieces and then melted in a furnace. It can then be turned into new products.

Car Batteries: London Rubbish Removal take car batteries to specialist centres where they are shredded and the acid is removed and disposed of in accordance with hazardous waste regulations. The plastic casing and lead of the battery can be recycled by melting it and using it for the manufacturing of new batteries or other plastic products.

Concrete & Rubble: Any material suitable for recycling, such as concrete, flagstones and bricks are crushed and the rubble is then used as ‘sub-base’ material and foundation on construction sites.

Recycle your Plastic with Experts

As you can see, recycling plastic and other materials we deal with in our households, offices, gardens etc. is not that straight forward and if it is not done professionally, it can cause even more damage to the environment than good. It is therefore advisable to leave the waste sorting and recycling to professionals, who are trained and certified to do it the right way, like the London Rubbish Removal Team. If you have any questions about recycling and waste collections, get in touch with them today.

Best 8 Ways to Manage Rubbish in London Restaurants

adequate-disposal-of-food-and-packaging-waste-in-restaurants-and-hotels

In the restaurant and catering industry, a lot of waste is generated every day, which is why waste disposal is an important issue.

Waste not only pollutes the environment, but also costs cash. However, with simple means, as a London hotelier, restaurateur, restaurant manager or chef, you can ensure that your company generates less rubbish and reduces the cost of waste disposal.

In this article we introduce tips for London restaurants on how to optimize their waste management and avoid waste and pollution.

Avoiding Rubbish in the Catering Industry: saving money and protecting the environment.

The cheapest waste is the one that doesn’t even accumulate. To identify where your company can avoid waste, you must first analyse your previous processes. From planning, shopping, storage and preparation to the dishes served at the guest’s table: there are potential savings everywhere.

Managing Packaging Waste

Packaging waste, for example, can be reduced relatively easily: detergents and food should always be bought in large packs or large containers, drinks in reusable containers, fruit and bread in reusable boxes or bags. In addition, packaging material does not have to end up directly in the bins. All over the world, hotels, restaurants and cafés show that great decorations and furnishings can still be made from them. You can find out how to do this in the upcycling blog post.

The breakfast buffet in hotels also offers a lot of potential to avoid garbage. Bread spreads such as butter, jam and nut-nougat cream can be offered just as well in larger bowls instead of portion packaging. Guests can then put their favourite spread either in small bowls or even better directly on the plate. Carafes are suitable for juice, milk and water. This not only avoids garbage, but also looks classy. Honey and ketchup can be offered in donors.

Managing Food Waste

In addition to the many, mostly unnecessary packaging, it is above all the food waste that makes up the largest amount of waste in the catering and hospitality industry. According to a research project by the Federal Environment Agency, 44 percent of food in restaurants, large kitchens or event catering ends up prematurely in waste.

Large kitchens, such as those found in hospitals, produce most food waste due to plate residues. In restaurants and hotels, an above-average number of leftovers are generated during the preparation. In order to avoid unnecessary waste – especially food – from the beginning, we have 8 more tips for you that are easy to implement:

8 Tips to Manage Waste in London Restaurants right from the Start:

Store your Ingredients correctly: To prevent food from degenerating before preparation, proper storage is important. Always arrange your food according to its best-before date/purchase date – for example, the freshly purchased ingredients at the back, and the existing stocks at the front. Storage boxes facilitate the organization of food.
Buy better Kitchen Utensils: Use special knives to peel fruit and vegetables or to fillet meat or fish. As a result, less waste ends up in the rubbish during preparation.
Say Goodbye to Disposable Items: Fabric instead of paper napkins, glass instead of plastic straws and coasters made of wood or glass: avoid disposable items and disposable dishes and instead rely on sustainable, reusable alternatives.
Offer two Portion Sizes: If many guests let a portion of their dish go back, the portions may be too large. Restaurants that don’t want to reduce the portions in principle – after all, some guests are also happy about a lavishly filled plate – can offer the dishes in two sizes. If only a lot is left with certain dishes, restaurants can start here and only adjust the portions there.
Introduce Meals of the Day: Ingredients that are about to expire or that you have left in small quantities are perfect for special dishes of the day. Alternatively, prepare small appetizers from these ingredients and delight your guests with a greeting from the kitchen.
Offer Takeaway Dishes with a Reusable System: Takeaway is also possible without additional packaging waste. You can offer your guests to bring their own containers. Or: You are introducing a kind of “reusable deposit system” for your containers.
Involve your Customers: Tell your guests that you want to make your restaurant more sustainable and ask for their help. Example: To avoid waste at the buffet, you can ask guests by means of signs to get a smaller serving more often. In the toilets you can therefore draw attention to the economical use of paper towels.
Reduce your Menu: Make a note of which dishes are most frequently ordered on your menu and which may be rare or not in demand at all. Swipe these dishes and instead put on a small menu of fresh, changing seasonal and regional products. Another option: let your guests choose the supplements separately to the main course. In this way, only what is really desired is ordered.

Of course, rubbish in restaurants cannot be completely avoided. With these tips, however, you will already significantly reduce your waste generation. But your company can also save money when recycling or disposing of waste:

Save Costs by separating Waste like Professionals

In addition to waste prevention, proper waste separation is the most effective way to optimise waste disposal in the hospitality sector. In addition to paper and cardboard, glass, plastics, metals and bio-waste, there is now also a separate storage obligation for wood, textiles, and other waste. If you consistently separate waste, you not only meet the legal requirements, but can also significantly reduce the residual waste generated. This reduces waste costs.

In gastronomy, waste can occur in a variety of types of waste, including:

Leftovers
Cooking oil
Paper and cardboard
Glass
Metal
Plastic
Wood
Textiles
Bio waste

Knowing how to separate and dispose of these professionally can often be difficult and time-consuming, which is why rubbish removal companies in London like London Rubbish Removal can remove your rubbish in London for you in a professional manner, disposing of it as required legally.

Why Waste Recycling is Important in London?

Waste production increases every day since the human population is also growing every day. Research by the World Bank shows that a single person can produce 0.17 to 5.7kgs of waste each day. That’s a lot of garbage a day, and that is why there are advanced waste disposal methods.

One of the eco-friendly waste disposal methods is recycling. Recycling is very advantageous to both the environment and to us. There are many benefits that can be associated with recycling as a waste disposal method. Recycling is the best option if we want to keep this planet a safe place, even for our future generations.

What is recycling?

So, how can we define recycling? Recycling is a process whereby a used product is turned into a raw material that can be used to make a new but similar or a different product. Recycling can start from your home. Before throwing away something that you cannot use anymore, consider, reusing, reducing, and recycling them. If you can do this, then you are recycling the product. Recycling keeps our environment happy, which is what is needed in our world today.

Why is recycling so important?

Recycling has so many advantages, starting from a personal level to the global environmental level. We are going to look at both levels on why you should make recycling a routine or a number one priority when you think of disposing of waste.

Recycling makes one conscious of how they use and dispose of things

Studies have shown that people who make recycling their routine save on a lot of resources. The reason is that this kind of people will think of how they can recycle things instead of buying new ones. They also think of how they are going to dispose of good before they even buy it. Such people always think about the three most important phrases of recycling; reduce, reuse, and recycle before they even buy a particular good.

Think, for instance, how we purchase goods impulsively, some of those goods end up being trashed since we do not need them. A person with a recycling mind will think of what the item will do for them. If they can’t find any good reason to buy it, they don’t buy it, thus saving on cash.

Recycling saves the environment.

Think about this, we have been throwing trash all over, and most of the trash ends up in the landfills and incinerators. Landfills destroy a big part of the environment by making it less attractive and unsafe. On the other side, incineration pollutes the air since the trash being burnt will emit chemicals into the air that are not in any way healthy.

Recycling, however, includes using old and waste products to make new ones which minimize the amount of waste which is to go to the landfills. As a result, we can have fewer landfills in London which also equates to less pollution of the air. Read about the ways of recycling Garden Wastes

Generates employment

Labour is needed when recycling is done. Separating waste to come up with the type of waste that is to be recycled will need an extra hand. Another case is where the garbage to be recycled needs to be collected from houses, and this is where waste clearance companies in London come in. They hire people to manage the rubbish and bring it to the recycling plant in London. This also is a form of employment which is a result of recycling.

We don’t always need to purchase new goods, but we can also use recycled ones. One may start a business of selling recycled good which is a form of employment to the sellers.

Saves more energy

It has already been proved by different studies that recycling saves up a lot of energy. Companies that utilize their recycled aluminum end up saving up to 90% of energy, which can be used somewhere else like fuel. You can Contact London rubbish removal if you would like to know how we collect house, office, builders, garden wastes and safely sent for recycling in London.

Conserves wildlife and aquatic life

Sometimes waste may be disposed of into large water bodies risking the lives of millions of aquatic animals. Recycling reduces the amount of waste that is to dumped into the sea, thus protecting marine life.

On the other hand, you might find that recycling reduces the number of raw materials to be used. Raw materials are mostly gotten from the forests, rivers, streams, and such natural habitats. Reducing the number of raw materials needed will reduce how much we exploit our natural resources for these goods.

Recycling is so important to us currently and to future generations. If we want to leave a better place for the future generation, we might want to consider recycling as one of the tools that can be used to achieve a peaceful, serene world. Recycling can be done at home, and thus, if everyone tried to recycle their waste, this would be a massive step towards reforming our world.

How to Get Your Unwanted Items at Home Recycled

Over recent years, most of us have been trying to get thrifty with our money. A good example of how many of us have been into this is recycling a range of home items and appliances, giving them a renewed lease of life.

When unwanted items are recycled, recycling facilities can reuse these resources, therefore, reducing the amount of raw materials required in manufacturing. Also, getting started for the unwanted items isn’t difficult, and it can begin right on the go.

To help on your quest of recycling unwanted home items, we’ve compiled the following summary on how to get such things at your home recycled.

Unwanted furniture into Shabby chic:

Shabby chic furniture never goes wrong with fashion. Instead, they portray the great appearance of any antique. You can give your unwanted dining room chairs and tables another lease of life by simply turning them into shabby chic furniture.

The requirements are basic and few; a rigorous sanding to get rid of any existing vanish/paints and then add a light coat of new paint. You can have an added feel to the shabby chic by running a clean paintbrush or a dry cloth to removing excess paint.

Bathroom items for Garden tools:

A complete bathroom replacement can be a bit expensive. However, this is when you consider getting rid of sinks, a toilet and an old bath. While you can just take such items to the landfill, there’re many uses such things have in your garden.

As keen gardeners are often alert, mint though easy to grow can turn wild if it’s not adequately contained when planted. Therefore, if you’re growing on a large scale or looking forward to having a herb garden, you can ideally utilize the old bathtub for a quirky planter. Also, a thorough clean of the toilet can get this into a farmer for the garden.

Light bulb to a vase:

Just because the element in your light bulb is gone does not really mean that the light bulb is ready to be thrown away. In fact, after providing a view around your home, the light bulb can be transformed into a few things, such as a vase for a few flowers in your homes.

Quick research from the internet can get you handy with more tips on how to turn a light bulb into a vase. Even if it might be difficult with energy-saving bulbs, it is still possible to recycle.

In all instances, recycling glass items should be conducted with great care.

Bottles into Candle Holders

If you’re lucky enough, you’ve been into a restaurant where they’ve made candle holders out of old wine bottles.

And if this works for a restaurant, it’ll probably work in your home. However, not only wine bottles. Funky Cider or beer bottles also work quite well, and if at all you don’t light candles, you can have them for beautiful ornaments.

Recycling Cutlery and Coffee Jars:

You don’t have to throw away your cutlery just because it embarrassed you during a dinner party. Instead, you can recycle it as coat pegs.

Are you wondering about coffee jars? Like old bits of wood, any empty instant coffee jars come with a multitude of uses. Raging from containers to screws, washers, stone nails and other DIY items or even wasp traps so you can enjoy some time in the garden without stings.

Kids Shoes:

We all know that kids grow out of shoes so fast. The best thing many organisations are looking for useful shoes for those in need.

Most of these organisations have plenty of drop-off points throughout the UK where you can donate your pre-loved shoes and boots. Also, they provide information on how to wash and tie such shoes for donations.

Electronics:

While many of us don’t see the need to upgrade electronics more often, there’s some truth that most of them aren’t created to last any more.

There’s a list of places available such as ARP and Mobile 4 Charity where you can get your unwanted items recycled. Ranging from mobile phones to printer cartridges, computers, musical instruments and other e-junks.

Tree Trunks for Garden Furniture:

This one might not be the easiest, but it’s also a good eco-friendly recycling tip. If you have a large tree cut down in your garden, and you’re struggling to remove the trunk, just scoop it into a garden bench. It’ll help to create some uniqueness in your yard. (Garden Waste Recycling and Disposing Tips).

You can also create a stepping stone for young children to pray on by having the trunk cut into smaller chunks.

If you reside around areas with no recycling pick up, or you have some recyclables not covered by the available programs, consider finding recycling drop-ff centers. You can commonly recycle items such as aluminium cans, paper products, and plastics at such centers.