Packing tape

[Mrs Pingu]

Looking for good adhesive strong packing tape. Don't just say 3M Duct tape as it appears to come in a hundred different grades...

[nuttycyclist]

I'd just go to the local corner shop/post office and buy the traditional brown packing tape.

Not sure where you can get the traditional roller applicator from, but it's only a nice to have.

[rafletcher]

I bought some Sellotape, around 2” wide. Works well. Available on Amazon for £15 for 6 60m rolls

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sellotape-packaging-Polypropylene-50mmx66m-1445172/dp/B000SHOO3Y/ref=sr_1_6?crid=MLZDY82JNYKP&dchild=1&keywords=sellotape+packing+tape&qid=1627067879&sprefix=Sellotape+pa%2Caps%2C154&sr=8-6

Dispensers also a available

[Jurek]

Looking for good adhesive strong packing tape. Don't just say 3M Duct tape as it appears to come in a hundred different grades...

Never mind the tape.
Get a functioning dispenser (pennies rather than pounds).
It'll save many tears.

ETA - Bog standard brown tape works well with this.

[robgul]

Are you using a removal company?   If so they will usually supply cardboard boxes* and tape (for both self-packing and if they pack)

If not the likes of Screwfix sell heavy duty "sellotape" about 2" wide (Poundland sell it too but their's is total crap)

https://www.screwfix.com/p/diall-packaging-tape-brown-50m-x-50mm/8440v#_=p   and buy one of these too https://www.screwfix.com/p/diall-hand-held-tape-dispenser-50m-x-50mm/5462v

The other place to buy tape etc is a self-store company (although you'll probably pay through the nose for it)

* re-usable.

[Kim]

Don't buy the cheapo pound-shop tape.  Made that mistake with our n-2 house move.

[T42]

Not sure where you can get the traditional roller applicator from, but it's only a nice to have.

Office stationary suppliers will carry these.  Nice if you're doing a lot of boxes but a certain knack is involved.

[Jurek]

Looking for good adhesive strong packing tape. Don't just say 3M Duct tape as it appears to come in a hundred different grades...

Never mind the tape.
Get a functioning dispenser (pennies rather than pounds).
It'll save many tears.

ETA - Bog standard brown tape works well with this.

You can also specify your brown tape to be noiseless (recommended).

[Zipperhead]

Elephant Gorilla tape. To get anything stickier you would have to use helicopter tape (or a stick)

Sorry absolute brain fade there.

[Mrs Pingu]

I've found fibreglass reinforced tape, which is actually the sort of thing I want, not for *all* my boxes but for an old Tannoy speaker box the arse is falling out of that I need to reinforce with some extra support. I still have some bog standard brown tape from the last move.

[Mrs Pingu]

Also, I hate those tape gun things. They're alright for the actual taping but all the ones I've used at work seem to be shit at the cutting part.

[robgul]

Also, I hate those tape gun things. They're alright for the actual taping but all the ones I've used at work seem to be shit at the cutting part.

It's all in the wrist action for cutting the tape

[hellymedic]

Suggest you also get some red & white FRAGILE tape for strategic use.

[Feanor]

an old Tannoy speaker box the arse is falling out of

Jings, are those still in service?

[Mrs Pingu]

an old Tannoy speaker box the arse is falling out of

Jings, are those still in service?

Nope, they've been sitting in various shed (a damp one, which is why the arse is falling out of the box) & loft while yours are still in service!
 

[slope]

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

[hellymedic]

We remove plastic tape prior to recycling cardboard.

I used gummed brown paper tape when I packed things for the post a long time ago. Simply wet with sponge or spit.

Stuck well on paper and card. No plastic. Affordable.

No idea if it's still around.

Was it 'Lion' brand?...

[robgul]

We remove plastic tape prior to recycling cardboard.

I used gummed brown paper tape when I packed things for the post a long time ago. Simply wet with sponge or spit.

Stuck well on paper and card. No plastic. Affordable.

No idea if it's still around.

Was it 'Lion' brand?...

Having worked in the printing industry i recall there were two brands of brown paper tape we used - Lion made by John Dickinson and the much larger Butterfly brand made by Samuel Jones (the firm that made almost all the gummed paper the UK used in the 1960s)

Butterfly made dispenser machines for the tapes - a contraption with rollers, a water reservoir that fed a wetting brush - you pulled the lever (or the end of the tape on the simpler models) and the tape, with the gum on the outside of the roll, passed over the brush - you then tore it off and taped the parcel.   Those were the days - and all recyclable.

[nuttycyclist]

I tend to remove all tape etc too.  Part of this is the thought that I should, and the other part is that I can then cut the bigger boxes more easily into small parts with the stanley knife so that it takes up as little volume as possible in the bin.

[Kim]

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?

Enough people don't that the process must be able to cope with it somehow....

I'm imagining it being strained out of a giant vat of pulp by some impressive hydraulic machinery, but the reality is probably minimum-wage workers at a conveyor belt pulling the pieces with obvious tape on them and chucking them in the "to incinerator" skip.

[nuttycyclist]

....the reality is probably minimum-wage workers at a conveyor belt pulling the pieces with obvious tape on them and chucking them in the "to incinerator" skip.

My fear is that this is the case.  Pre THE PLAGUE I started getting into conversation with my local authority.  They were insistent that only plastic bottles could go in the recycling, despite their website saying PET1 could be recycled and was the main volume of bottles.  About 80% of my PET1 plastic is the trays the supermerkats put food in.

My question was answered along the lines of their technology can recognise bottles but not other shaped plastics...     I was going to pursue this, bearing in mind PET1 can be identified (according to internet) by machines with lasers and other such sensors, but lockdown#1 hit us and so I thought that their time was better needed than me asking silly questions.

So therefore 80% of my recyclable PET1 is no doubt just going to landfill.

[Kim]

I'm suspicious that Birmingham are just burning the lot.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Here they ask you to remove the tape before putting it out for collection. I would imagine that's pretty standard, as well as routinely ignored. Another thing they ask is not to put out greasy cardboard such as pizza boxes.

[L CC]

Domestic cardboard recycling is not as good as the retail /industrial cycle. It's part of the reason there's a paper and cardboard shortage, we're using more in home deliveries and it doesn't get back into the paper chain. All those cages of cardboard at the back of retail parks, that lot went straight into the paper plants. Council collected stuff doesn't.

[nuttycyclist]

I'm suspicious that Birmingham are just burning the lot.

I ran out late once with the recycling bag as the lorry passed.  They collected it despite it being the black bin bag lorry not recycling one, and the lads on the lorry just laughed and said it didn't matter as it all went to the same place.