Tag: tetrapaks (page 1 of 1)

February 22, 2019 / 1 Comment

Carton Recycling now in Pompey!

MARCH 27, 2019

HAPPY DANCE UPDATE: We now have TWO carton recycling banks in Pompey. A second carton recycling bank has been installed at the Morrisons supermarket in Anchorage Park, just off Eastern Road.

FEBRUARY 22, 2019

My household has been doing a happy dance since I (Tamara) found out that Portsmouth now has a carton recycling bank. My stockpiling of cartons and monthly recycling runs to Chandlers Ford can finally cease. Many thanks to our lovely readers who wrote to us with this encouraging news!

My household has been doing a happy dance since I (Tamara) found out that Portsmouth now has a carton recycling bank. My stockpiling of cartons and monthly recycling runs to Chandlers Ford can finally cease. Many thanks to our lovely readers who wrote to us with this encouraging news!

Tim Sheerman-Chase, Portsmouth Green Party activist and #LetPompeyBreathe campaigner, recycles his cartons at the new carton recycling bank at ASDA

What cartons can be recycled

This beautiful lone ranger of a bring bank can be found at the Asda Superstore at the Bridge Shopping Centre in Fratton. Recycle your cartons (like Tetra Paks) including:

  • juice cartons
  • paper cups
  • milk cartons
  • paper coffee cups
  • soup, tomatoes and other food cartons
  • other beverage cartons
  • ( N.B. caps + lids can be left on )

Wash and squash them as the washing helps reduce contamination and squashing helps to fit loads more cartons into the recycling bank. You can even leave the caps/lids on as they will be removed in the recycling process. My foster teens think I am cray-cray cause I rinse out my rubbish for recycling but its got to be done.

By the way, Tetra Paks manufacture cartons but a bit like hoover/vacuum and google/internet search, the name seems to be synonymous with cartons.

Photo of Recycling Bank at Asda Fratton

why i am so happy about carton recycling

Previous to this installation of this new joy-of-my-heart, you would find me doing a monthly 50 mile round trip to Valley Park Community Centre Cartons Recycling Bank in Chandlers Ford with a car full of soya milk, soup and beverage cartons. My reusable drinks cup means that my disposable coffee cup use is limited, but any takeaway paper coffee cups were also stored and either taken to a Costa coffee shop or to the Valley Park bank.

Crazily, this was the nearest and easiest cartons recycling bank for me to get to. I would stockpile cartons in my conservatory and soon started collecting cartons from my car-free friends and Portsmouth Green Party members. If I’m going to drive all the way there, I may as well take a car-full and so I became the ‘Cartons and Foils’ gal who would collect black bin bags full from across Pompey. Luckily, in the two years that I have been recycling cartons at Valley Park, I only experienced a handful of wasted trips due to an overfull bank.

Please sir, can we have some More (carton recycling) please?

I have written to Dave Ashmore, the current Portsmouth City Council Cabinet Member for Environment and Community Safety, to express my delight but also to ask for more details about the roll-out of further cartons banks.

You may remember I wrote wistfully last year about the Southampton trial of 10-12 mixed plastics and carton recycling banks. I was gutted when that came to an abrupt end, as reported by the Southern Daily Echo, “because the company that provides the banks says it is having ongoing difficulties in disposing of the materials.”  and I was convinced this failed trial would mean carton recycling would take even longer to come to Portsmouth. Hence the extra-happy dance when the carton recycling bank at Asda Fratton was installed. Green wishes can come true!

A few recycling banks for tetrapaks and food/drink cartons across the city would make a huge difference as well. I don’t expect miracles – but a trial such as the one in Southampton shouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility.

365 DAYS OF SHADES OF GREEN- PART 2 Aug 2018

ACE UK is the supplier of the carton recycling banks in Asda Fratton and Valley Park Community Centre. Though I do not know which company supplied the Southampton trial carton and mixed plastics banks, I don’t believe it was ACE UK. Regardless, I asked Dave Ashmore for reassurance that we in Portsmouth will take lessons learned from the sad ending of the Southampton trial. I’ll report back when I hear back from him.

Do your bit

And finally, to ensure this cartons bank is a success and that more are installed across the city, I ask you dear reader to:

  • Use the bloomin’ carton bank regularly.
    (Yes, I know it is a pain there is currently only one for the entire city but if it is used it will show there is a need for it and hopefully more will be installed. One is better than none!)
  • Write to your local councillors to say Yay for the lone ranger and to request a carton bank near you. (Click here to find out who your three local city councillors are and their contact details.)

And do let us know in the Comments section if they reply !


A Coke can lying on the street instead of being recycled.
February 2, 2018 / 38 Comments

How to Recycle in Portsmouth 2: Recycling the Unrecyclable

In one of our very first posts back in August, we talked about what can be recycled in our lovely port city of Portsmouth, both at kerbside and at recycling banks scattered across the city.

 

To quickly recap, the council kerbside collection accepts metal cans, tins and aerosols, plastic bottles, paper and cardboard as well as small electrical equipment (WEEE). Easy peasy lemon squeezy as I (Tamara) don’t have to leave my house.

 

For those adventurous souls who like to venture into the great outdoors, there is a mix of council, charity, and supermarket recycling banks across the city that accept a variety of materials – mostly textiles, glass jars and bottles, and printer cartridges. But let’s not forget my piece de resistance – mixed plastics at Sainsbury’s.

 

Though I am pleased I can reduce my waste through recycling mixed plastics, it does require more effort than kerbside collection as I have to leave my house – you know how I feel about that!! I have rocked up to Sainsbury’s Farlington with a car full to the brim – and this is no exaggeration – with mixed plastics from my household, my next-door neighbour, and at least 5 other people from Portsmouth Green Party who don’t have cars. And then…prepare yourself for the horror….the recycling bank is overflowing and I have to take it all back home again. Bloody pain, I tell you! First world problems, I know – but incredibly frustrating nonetheless! So much so, I took it upon myself to contact Sainsbury’s to ask about their scheduled emptying of the banks and they notified me that they had ordered a second bin to the store to accommodate all the recyclable plastic. I’m rock ‘n roll like that!

 

 

Enough of my ranting. Let’s turn our green dial up and look at the other household bits and bobs that can also be recycled in Pompey at supermarket collection points and recycling banks. 

Household Batteries

batteries

Collection bins for domestic batteries can be found in most chain supermarkets – and not just the larger superstores but also, for example, your local Tesco Express. Check the supermarkets you frequent the most and I guarantee you will find a battery collection bin.  My nearest one is at my local Co-Op. You can also locate your nearest battery recycling online. A quick postcode search on Recycle More shows collection points at a variety of shops including Tesco, Sainsbury’s, One-Stop, Toys ‘R’ Us, Debenhams, Mothercare, and Maplin Electronics – but remember not all options are necessarily listed online or in one place.

 

Since 2010, a change in the law means that larger providers that sell batteries also need to provide in-store collection for used batteries. Tesco has battery-recycling points at all Express, Metro, Superstore, and Extra stores and also accepts batteries from mobile phones, laptops, hearing aids, watches, cameras, cordless power tools, electric toothbrushes, razors and hand-held vacuum cleaners. Sainsbury’s also offer a take back scheme for all portable waste batteries. Lots of other stores also have collection bins for batteries – just keep your eyes peeled.

 

It is so important to recycle batteries as if disposed of in landfill they can leach chemicals into the ground causing soil and water pollution. The majority of our waste in Pompey is incinerated and burning batteries can cause atmospheric pollution. A large proportion of batteries bought in the UK are not recycled and end up with household waste. Prevent these toxins from entering our environment and recycle your batteries!

 

You can also consider switching to rechargeable batteries which are a greener, more cost-effective option and can also be recycled at the end of their lifespan!

 

A final note, check the batteries of your smoke alarms and, unless it is a ten-year alarm, remember to change (and recycle!) the batteries once a year.

 

 

Plastic Carrier Bags

I have noticed collection points for recycling plastic carrier bags at some larger supermarkets such as the Commercial Road Sainsbury’s and the Palmerston Road Waitrose [and the Commercial Road and North Habour Tesco’s- Emma].

 

Some of these collection points also allow for other packaging films to be included such as plastic bread bags and the plastic wrappers from toilet roll and kitchen towel packs. I will write a follow-up post on this as I want to be sure of what exactly can be included before I send you off on a recycling pilgrimage!

 

Water Filters

 

Online search facilities have failed me on this one – however, luckily Emma, our Instagram Queen, spotted that the big Tescos at North Harbour has a recycling station for water filters cartridges. Other than Tescos, the only other option I am aware of is collection points for  BRITA branded water filters. These can be recycled locally at Boots, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s and Argos, where boxes are provided for the collection of used Brita cartridges.

 

Cartons

juice carton

Juice cartons, milk cartons, cartons for tomatoes and soup…I wish I could tell you these can be recycled locally. But sadly, they can’t. Don’t get me wrong, it is totally possible to recycle cartons and tetrapaks – Portsmouth City Council just doesn’t provide this facility.

Some of you have asked us if cartons can be recycled with kerbside recycling of paper and card or at Sainsbury’s mixed plastic banks. Good question but the answer is unfortunately no. This is because cartons are made of a mix of paper, plastic and aluminium foil and so would contaminate either the paper or plastics collection if included.

The nearest permanent carton recycling banks I have found through Recycle Now are in Bognor Regis and Chandlers Ford. Southampton City Council is currently trialling mixed plastics recycling banks which happily for our neighbouring city does include cartons (tetrapaks) as well as plastics like plastic meat and ready meal trays and plastic bottle tops. I am seriously jealous. This is my call to action – if Southampton can have cartons recycling, so can Pompey!!!

 

Energy Saving Light Bulbs

lightbulb

Let’s end on a bright note – haha, do you see what I did there? I am pleased to tell you that recycling light bulbs are pretty straightforward. Old style standard light bulbs cannot be recycled but energy saving light bulbs – which are a type of fluorescent lamp – can be recycled. Robert Dyas, Commercial Road Sainsbury’s and Curry’s PC World all have collection points/ recycling banks for energy saving light bulbs.

 

Have you spotted any recycling banks or collection points that I have missed? What other recycling facilities would you like to see in Portsmouth? Let us know in the comments below. And ’til next time, Happy Recycling!

 

Promoted by T Sheerman-Chase, 99 Pretoria Road, PO4 9BD on behalf of Portsmouth Green Party. The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other party, agency, organization, employer or company.

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