Recycling plastic

There are so many different types of plastic floating around, and the UK generates 3 million tonnes of plastic waste every year, of which only 7% is recycled.

The main types of plastic are:

• HDPE – (High-density polyethylene - Opaque bottles such as bottles for milk and washing-up liquids)
• PVC – (Polyvinyl chloride - Transparent bottles including bottles for squash, mineral water and shampoo. Also food trays and cling film)
• PET – (Polyethylene terephthalate - Transparent bottles, with a hard moulded spot in the centre of the base such as fizzy drink bottles. Oven-ready meal trays are also PET)

The unfortunate case is that most of all the 50 types of plastic can be recycled, it's just that councils aren't giving people the means to do that. Most councils are only accepting certain types of plastic bottles, and we really need to be recycling as much waste as possible.

This is an interesting article from the BBC:

A month without plastic

Christine Jeavans is going to attempt to go a month without buying anything that uses plastic. I think this is a fantastic idea, and it will be very interesting to see how she gets on.