Forum Topic

Townmead Rd.

Front page of Forum, large fire at the Townmead road recycling centre Mortlake, last night.

Barbara Stevens ● 1688d48 Comments

You can learn something new every day Barbara.  The microwave BTW is very good for wet flannels that have missed the wash.  It is hotter.  You still need to wash them out. Everything can be dangerous - it depends on the circumstances. I don't use flannels I think they are horrible but after nearly 100 years FIL was unfortunately rather used to them.Charity shops aren't the magic answer.  We no longer spend as much on good quality clothes or wear as good quality clothes as in the past.  There is a lot of cheap clothing on the market and much of it isn't re-sold as clothing. Buying less and buying more carefully is.https://www.storyofstuff.org/movies/story-of-plastic-animation/

Philippa Bond ● 1678d

Yes well I expect somebody's aunt Ethel used to throw away their knickers which had elastic in them and they held them up with a safety pin in case their draws fell down. But I think a lot of decent people take their clothes to Oxfam or the Heart Foundation etc. Or put in the bags that are put in our doors for people to collect. But we don't all put them in the microwave like you Philippa.

Barbara Stevens ● 1678d

So the conversation moved on to what we were buying and  throwing away as that is what they had at LB Richmond's Townmead Reuse & Recycling Centre that was on fire - that's a very natural progression.

Philippa Bond ● 1679d

Philippa, the fire was at a large dump. There are flats, houses, the records office, the crematorium. Nothing about clothes apart from M & S and TKMAX. I was informing people the fire was on the front page of the forum. It's also been in our local paper, people,residents had been told to close there windows.

Barbara Stevens ● 1679d

I still don't understand what big houses have to do with anything!

Philippa Bond ● 1679d

:)  I haven't looked back (except to the electric one which Him Indoors decided to recycle the charger because he didn't know what it was for - aagh!  I now mark every electric cable/transformer with what it is for.  In the split moment that you can't remember and answer what does this belong to perhaps because you are busy or asleep it is consigned to the electronics/electronics recycling bin and the time it takes to find a replacement is a nightmare.  There needs to be an intermediate thinking about it bin!

Philippa Bond ● 1680d

Matt, it isn’t just the toothbrush, it’s the packaging.  The plastic toothbrush comes in plastic and paper packaging, the bamboo toothbrush comes in cardboard.

Martine Guy ● 1680d

yeah for a couple of years now. It never really occured to me until someone pointed out that traditional toothbrushes arent recyclable and therefore (unless its been incinerated) every single toothbrush you have ever used in your life is still out there somewhere.Obvious I guess but even so.

Matt Palmer ● 1680d

Ha, Ha!  The strawberry outfit is very funny.  The photo made me laugh. I guess you have been using bamboo toothbrushes for some time? i only recently changed to them.

Martine Guy ● 1680d

Or I could fit you up with a strawberry outfit.....

Matt Palmer ● 1680d

Blocking roads next Martine?

Matt Palmer ● 1680d

I have changed to bamboo toothbrushes and would recommend them. Bars of soap and bamboo toothbrushes, does this make me an eco warrior too?

Martine Guy ● 1680d

Barbara:  You're right that is what a lot of us think about the majority of PLASTICS which are very flammable.

Philippa Bond ● 1683d

Philippa, you are continually going on about clothes, people have big houses nearby also the records office is there. Think in the real world not not your fantasy world. www.hhp/bollocks.

Barbara Stevens ● 1683d

Well plastic fleece unlike woollen isn't compostable. So choose better and keep for longer. So long as something is put on the market we are going to have to deal with the consequences. It would be good to have more info readily available on more friendly fabrics - and not just at designer prices until we have a Polluter Pays Tax.I haven't bought anything new to wear for several years. I had time recently to have look through my wardrobe and alter and mend a few things!  Take a look at Stacey Dooley's documentary on the making of cotton and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's on waste and you'll soon go off that. If you are caring for someone whose clothes constantly need washing you may want something easy to wash like acrylic fleece.  If you want secondhand you may have to use a website with a Wants section as well as a No longer Wanted section eg trashnothing.com or ask at a charity shop if they'll save something because clothing coming in all has to be sorted and it may not be considered worthy enough for keeping and could go straight to be sold for rag.

Philippa Bond ● 1683d

I'll say it yet again.Plastic can only be recyled once or twice times maximum.Again, after that, it's off to the incinerator, landfill or some impoverished nation to burn it at the road side.https://www.plasticexpert.co.uk/how-many-times-can-plastic-be-recycled/

Matt Palmer ● 1685d

Imperial Leather, Palmolive. I always have used a bar of soap as well.

Barbara Stevens ● 1685d

Putting recycling in orange plastic bags to be collected sounds the dafted thing ever but it seems to makes people feel better.The situation will not improve until the cost of disposing of the plastic is added on to the cost of the product.

Ed Robinson ● 1685d

https://www.veolia.co.uk/press-releases/veolia-set-produce-over-100-million-recycled-plastic-milk-bottles-each-yearMilk bottles are made out of HDPE (High Density Polyethylene) (2 in the recycling triangle)Fleeces are made out of PET (Polyethylene Terephalate)  (1 in the recycling triangle)There was supposed to be a law to require a minimum percentage of recyclate in new plastic.You sometimes find see-through plastic tubs etc marked rPET which means that it is made with recycled content.I don't know what happened to this law. I wasn't convinced that this was going anywhere.

Philippa Bond ● 1685d

yes but my point is, once its been recycled into a milk bottle, and then after that maybe a fleece, it cannot be recycled further.

Matt Palmer ● 1685d

@AndyImperial Leather was always used in our house when I was little and I was always intrigued by how the little label thingy on it stayed put lol. @ MartineWhen I got to be a teenager I persuaded Mum to buy me Camay because I thought it was posh😺and it smelled so nice.🌸 My 'grown up' choice has always been Pears.

Sue Hammond ● 1685d

Matt  I have actually been around a plastics recycling place in Dagenham. This is where they were chipping and melting and extruding etc into pellets HDPE plastic milk bottles.  Maybe it was 2016 I went around it - before Veolia bought it anyway.https://www.energylivenews.com/2019/06/03/veolia-invests-1m-in-dagenham-plant-to-boost-plastic-recycling/https://openhouselondon.open-city.org.uk/listings/5227I think it is still there.  It is just that the UK has very few recycling facilities for plastics compared to the number of different plastics on the market.  What your Council recycles depends on what contracts it has.  Plastic is very calorific.  They may as part of their waste authority have funded an efw facility. Or they may not have. Hopefully there are not a large number of minimum waste contracts in existence when what we need to do is to reduce waste. 

Philippa Bond ● 1685d

I am quite surprised by this. Have always used bars of soap particularly imperial leather. Never realised I've been an environmentalist for over 60 years 😁😁

Andy Pike ● 1685d

Sue, we only use soap bars too.  So many to choose from these days.  It’s a long time since Camay and Lifebuoy were the ones everyone bought!  Trying to think of others that were popular in the days when we only had one bath a week.

Martine Guy ● 1685d

lol. Well I genuinely believed that plastics just 'got recycled' until a couple of years ago!

Matt Palmer ● 1685d

I have always used soap Philippa, I was just laughing at Matt's Road to Damascus moment.😸

Sue Hammond ● 1685d

It really is substantially cheaper (if you don't leave the bar in the bottom of the bath)!

Philippa Bond ● 1685d

"We switched over to using bars of soap and have never looked back but appreciate it's not for everyone"😂

Sue Hammond ● 1686d

yeah possibly :(We switched over to using bars of soap and have never looked back but appreciate it's not for everyone

Matt Palmer ● 1686d

Bars of soap are my preference but Him Indoors has discovered and likes liquid soap.  Sometimes it's easier to compromise!  I can't see how bars of soap are less hygienic than bottles with pumps because who washes the top of the pump before and after using it?  Each of them could be a problem and where do you stop?  What about the taps and door handles etc...  It's a home and not an office.  I too suspect they were a great marketing wheeze!

Philippa Bond ● 1686d

or you could just buy a bar of soap...

Matt Palmer ● 1686d

Thank you.  Those pumps for handwash bottles can only be landfilled/incinerated whereas the plastic bottles are probably one of the most recyclable of recyclable plastics.

Philippa Bond ● 1686d

Yes but going back to my point, that's why recycling of plastics is ultimately a myth.

Matt Palmer ● 1686d

Agreed Matt - and that is a reason to choose our clothes carefully so that we do wear them and wear them for as long a life as possible before ditching them. For some people the easy to wash and dry fleece is going to be important. Unfortunately online shopping can increase the amount of unworn clothing being disposed of because it can be time consuming and a hassle to return and change - even if you do give things to charity shops!  We can mend our clothes and upcycle them so that they last as long as possible - there are some great initiatives - have a look at Japanese mending.  The Great British Sewing Sewing Bee on TV is also a great inspiration.  There are also Repair Groups and don't forget that Dry Cleaners' shops are also a place where you can often get your clothes repaired if you aren't going to do it yourself!Also important is to make sure that everyone knows how to look after their clothes and teach their children to close the zips and turn jeans inside out etc.  Knitted fabrics can be destroyed by zips catching in them (or just create another mending project).  Nothing worse than a moment of carelessness ruining a favourite and/or expensive garment!There's lots on the internet.  Here's one to start:www.loveyourclothes.org.uk

Philippa Bond ● 1686d

"One day I'll manage to find some bulk buy handwash........"
Try Costco, Philippa:
https://www.costco.co.uk/Fitness-Well-Being/Bath-Body/Hand-Foot-Care/Carex-Professional-Handwash-5L/p/203621 Still a plastic container but less of it.

Steve Poole ● 1686d

Yes and ultimately the fleece will get disposed of, be it in 1 year or 5 and then it gets incinerated or goes to landfill.

Matt Palmer ● 1686d

You can make fleeces out of it - but then another problem is little bits come off that in the washing machine and they end up in the sea...  (We don't have good enough filters on our washing machines but there is a bag we can use to help to alleviate that problem but presumably that reduces the way the water moves through the washing.)We can choose carefully and try to reduce the overall amount of plastic we buy that is unnecessary and find alternatives and always complain about overpackaged goods - perhaps suggesting any better alternative.  Look for refill shops.I read recently about an initiative they are working on at Imperial College to try to deal with the bits that come off car tyres - which is a positive note. However, all our rivers lakes and streams are considered polluted. :( 

Philippa Bond ● 1686d

Yes Judy, it's great in there :)

Matt Palmer ● 1686d

I assume everyone is aware of the Source, newish shop in PHS, East side of the road next to Paul's bakery.  Dry foods and household goods all sold loose. Take your own container or buy one there and re-use it forever, or use one of their paper bags if appropriate.  A step towards getting rid of plastic.

Judy Allen ● 1686d

Sorry to disagree but i'm afraid you are incorrect.Cars driving over the roads slowly grinds bits off and where does that end up? in the groundwater. Yes you can make plastic clothes, fleeces and the like but one day it's going to get thrown away, and where does it go then? Landfill or incinerator - you can't recycle it.

Matt Palmer ● 1686d

Sorry Matt to disagree, but I have heard of a Scottish company using recycled plastic in road surfacing materials and this being used in  extreme conditions in Russia. If I remember correctly the Clothing company Seasalt uses recycled plastic to produce its rainwear clothing.

Katrina Black ● 1686d

Recycling of plastic is a total myth. The fact is that plastic can be recycled two or three times maximum. After that its going to landfill or an incinerator. One way or another your plastic is going to end up inside a fish or in the air you breathe. Tasty.

Matt Palmer ● 1686d

There’s a growing trend for people to think bars of soap are unhygienic. Lay the blame at the door of marketing idiocy.

Freddie Francis ● 1686d

Part of the problem is there isn't a big enough market for the amount of recycled plastic that is produced.A packaging tax was announced way back in 2017. It is still not implemented. Another reason I stopped listening to the party political budget!https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/introduction-of-plastic-packaging-tax/plastic-packaging-tax

Ed Robinson ● 1686d

It has got much harder dealing with plastic as so many countries will no longer accept our plastics.  Quite  honestly the less there is the better.  Very little of it is easy to recycle.  Unfortunately it has increased over the pandemic as it makes it easier for people to rush into and out of supermarkets I think.  We don't wear plastic masks but fabric ones that we wash after every visit out. The virus actually lives longer on plastic than it does on other surfaces.I think vegetables from one of the companies that delivers would be a good idea but I've been overruled by the shopper.  We would also get fresher vegetables that haven't travelled miles across the country or flown in from overseas.  We'd be able to eat fresher veg which are always better.  Nothing much seems to keep very long in plastic and it has to be kept in the fridge because it has been washed.  :(Next month is Plastic Free July.  One day I'll manage to find some bulk buy handwash which will suit those in our house who won't use bars of soap.  I've already got some empty bottles.  I'm amazed at how much less often soap has to be replaced when it is a bar!  You can also buy bars of soap for washing your hair.  I haven't tried that yet!

Philippa Bond ● 1686d

No idea what Richmond do but Wandsworth send a huge amount of plastics to the incinerator

Matt Palmer ● 1686d

Townmead is Richmond's recycling centre and Richmond is one of the West London Waste Authority's group of Councils.This is where they tell us that they send their recycling most of which we would like to believe because they don't send any to landfill and we would hope they send as little as possible for efw as that is very expensive.  Only now of course they are bound to have to send some more. :(https://www.richmond.gov.uk/what_happens_to_your_recycling

Philippa Bond ● 1686d

suppose it saves the council the effort of just taking the recycling to the incinerator?

Matt Palmer ● 1687d