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What to do with plastic trash?

 
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What does everyone here do with plastic trash. Its the one piece of modern garbage I haven't figured out what im going to do with.
 
Posts: 92
Location: Wealden AONB
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Here - it all goes to be recycled.

I do have a plastic bottle string cutter but it only works on certain bottles. Thinking of trying it on yoghurt pots.
I have collected some small pots to see if I can use them as bricks rammed earth esque. Some clear bottles or yoghurt pots can be utilised as mini cloches.
Have tried knitting and weaving with plastic bags but it degrades far too quickly. Also melted it with an iron to make plastic sheets - this was for a craft project though, mainly used this method for art projects. Still thinking of making an interior window buy melting plastic.

Very limited, so most gets recycled.
 
Johnny Foo
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Thanks for replying. I have been trying for while  to figure out a better way to depose of it other than burning.
 
Posts: 88
Location: Los Angeles for now, Maybe Idaho soon...
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Most plastic can be recycled.  Problem is, it takes up a lot of space.  I'm going to get an old chipper shredder, and simply chop the stuff up into small pieces, fill trash cans, and then when filled, recycle the plastic.  

I should fit about 20 TIMES the amount of plastic if it's chopped up as opposed to full sized containers.  
 
Posts: 23
Location: Southern NSW Australia
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Have you looked into the Zero Waste lifestyle? I haven't gone full-on with it yet, but even just making a handful of changes has dramatically reduced the amount of plastic ending up in my trash. Generally, I've found that the less I rely on standard shopping outlets (malls, supermarkets, etc), the less plastic I bring into my life. It'll save you some money, too. Have fun with it! 😊
 
steward
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Plastic is problematic. Most things I buy comes with some sort of plastic attached.  I have no way to recyle as no options exist.  I try to flatten everything as best as I can so it takes up less space and bundle all plastic together in the small grocery type bags.  Then when we go to town I return it to the store I purchased it from.  They have a trash can in front of the store and I return it there.
 
pollinator
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Location: South Central PA
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Eddie Conna wrote:Most plastic can be recycled.  Problem is, it takes up a lot of space.  I'm going to get an old chipper shredder, and simply chop the stuff up into small pieces, fill trash cans, and then when filled, recycle the plastic.  

I just want to caution, that with many municipalities, the recycling centers need each product intact with the stamp of grade plastic for them to recycle it, otherwise, they toss the unknowns to a dumpster. i.e. if you look at a normal milk jug, it is most likely a 2, or HDPE (High Density Polyethylene). and therefore most places accept them. Before you shred and combine, you should check with your local pickup to see how it is sorted (and actually retained)
 
pollinator
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Yep plastic is a pain, and trying to avoid it a massive headache.

One thing I try to do, is remove any plastic I can't avoid before I return home. Putting it in recycling in town so I don't have to bring it back.

The big one though is try and limit purchasing things with plastic. Any time you can opt for no plastic try to do so. More you pay attention to this the more you realize how pervasive plastic is in our world.

I have seen several videos and written accounts of folks who tired to eliminate plastic from their lives and found it impossible to complete rid themselves of it. But it is a goal to strive for to lessen how much you are responsible for.
 
author & steward
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Location: Cache Valley, zone 4b, Irrigated, 9" rain in badlands.
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I do a lot of my shopping at places that don't sell things in plastic... I buy nuts and bolts from a bulk aisle. I buy bicycle tires and tubes from a bike shop that gets them in bulk without attached packaging. I throw fruits and vegetables into my shopping cart without putting them in plastic bags. I carry things out of the store without bagging them. I take my own bags for larger shopping sprees. I buy whole heads of lettuce that come without plastic, rather than shredded lettuce that's in a plastic bag. I buy meat from the butcher, who wraps it in waxed paper, rather than from the meat aisle which wraps it in Styrofoam and plastic. I rarely buy processed foods which typically come wrapped in plastic. Whenever possible, I store my seeds in reusable glass jars rather than in plastic bags.
 
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Several months ago we began making "eco-bricks" out of our plastic waste. The idea is to take a water bottle/juice container etc. and shove it full of your plastic waste. It usually takes us 2-4 weeks to fill one "brick". We typically have plastic bags (from frozen fruit), containers from soy-milk (we cut them up into small pieces to make them fit in the bottle), stickers/labels from fruit etc. you can fit much more into a single bottle than you would imagine, using a stick to pack the trash in.

There are many things you can do with the finished bricks - people are building homes from them. We plan on creating a raised garden bed from ours once we have enough. Creating these bricks and living as close to zero-waste as possible has almost totally eliminated us sending anything to landfills now!

Here's a website with more info about eco-bricks :

http://www.ecobricks.org/tag/zero-waste/
 
Posts: 79
Location: Suburbs Salt Lake City, Utah 6a 24 in rain 58 in snow
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"We plan on creating a raised garden bed from ours once we have enough."  Brittany,  what a great idea! I'm going to start doing this- I can easily collect the bottles from my workplace!
 
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