Packing tape

[Cudzoziemiec]

If you lived in West London, we'd be burning your rubbish in Bristol.

And making electricity from it. Approximately 65 container loads a day. I counted once, cos the train carrying them comes through my local station every evening (it's smelly).

[quixoticgeek]

Just wondering . . .

Does anyone else remove brown plastic tape from cardboard delivery boxes before putting the latter in the recycling bin?

Does the Council employ someone to do so if us consumers don't?

Is there a non single use plastic alternative to packaging tape? I fondly remember brown paper and string with knots

Nope. I'm pretty certain it all goes in a giant shredder, with the plastic and the pulp separated via filters, and magnets for the staples.

It would not be cost effective to remove the tape by hand, it would not be cost effective to rely on the people putting the cardboard in the recycling to remove it. So you have to have some sort of system to remove it.

Our office recycling place doesn't accept pizza boxes, but I reckon that's cos people keep putting them in with a slice of pizza still in there.

J

[Cudzoziemiec]

That might be an additional factor, but it's mainly cos the boxes absorb grease, which is a contaminant that has to be removed in order to reuse the fibres. Tape and staples are other contaminants, which is why you should remove them. The fewer contaminants, the more useful the waste.