Why and What to do with Yogurt and Ice Cream Plastic (type 5) Containers

Forums › Off topic › Why and What to do with Yogurt and Ice Cream Plastic (type 5) Containers

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Stu

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#2786423 29-Sep-2021 16:19

Another annoying thing; they'll take type 1, 2, and 5 plastics containers but not the lids, even if the lid is also type 1, 2, or 5 (and many of these lids do seem to be 1, 2 or 5)!

People often mistake me for an adult because of my age.

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#2786571 29-Sep-2021 19:07

cshwone:
I recycle by use in the workshop - clearly labelled for nails, screws, bolts, anchors etc ie all the little bits you can't find.

Was just going to suggest the same thing, I use yoghurt containers as paint/glue pots, to hold screws and nuts when I'm working on something, to bail sludge out of the sumps, .... Unless you're going through a pot a day and have mountains of them there's a neverending number of uses around the house that seems to consume them relatively easily.

MadEngineer

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#2786580 29-Sep-2021 19:37

If you know anyone with school kids ask them if they’ve even been asked to collect such items for projects.

Or buy a yogurt kit and make your own.

You're not on Atlantis anymore, Duncan Idaho.

allan

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#2786645 29-Sep-2021 21:06

Stu:

Another annoying thing; they'll take type 1, 2, and 5 plastics containers but not the lids, even if the lid is also type 1, 2, or 5 (and many of these lids do seem to be 1, 2 or 5

For a while Wellington City Council wouldn't take meat trays even if they were type 1, which caused a conversation in this house along the lines of "You mean if the identical supermarket tray had doughnuts on it, they would take it, but not if it had meat. Are they forcing us to be vegetarian?" "Err, no I don't it's anything to do with meat."

Apparently it was because they were to easily confused with PVC trays, but now it seems they have a fancy new machine that can tell the difference.

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#2786682 29-Sep-2021 22:26

alasta:

cshwone:

Going back to my youth in the UK I think we actually had far smarter recycling of glass bottles in that, for example, milk was delivered in glass bottles, you left the empties out for pick up back to the dairy where they were washed and reused.

We used to have this in NZ up until the late 80s if I recall correctly. You would put your empty bottles at the front gate with some money in them, and the milkman would swap them for full ones.

As time went on it became increasingly common for the money to get stolen, so eventually they introduced little plastic prepaid tokens instead!

Man I feel old.

Most likely some political will is required to make this fly economically. Most people I talk to would prefer glass over plastic if these were the same price. To get it the same price and get the reuse viable, it will be essential to standardise some of the containers.

Eg 1litre/500l clear bottle, non-pressurised, screw top with medium cap. Suitable also for slightly thick liquids like tomato source, cream, milk and fruit juice etc.

750ml/330ml brown bottle with screw cap for pressurised liquids sensitive to sunlight. Cold drinks, beer and wine

750ml/330ml green bottle with screw cap for pressurised liquids sensitive to sunlight Cold drinks, beer and wine

750ml/330ml clear bottle with screw cap for pressurised liquids sensitive to sunlight Cold drinks and wine

1000ml/500ml/250ml clear bottles with large cap for thick liguids like yogurt, jam, etc.

As these would be standardised, they can be returned to any retailer for a deposit and reused again. Because these are standardised, any small producer can reuse these, not only their own specific shapes and types of bottles, saving transport costs.

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#2786686 29-Sep-2021 22:38

alasta:
As time went on it became increasingly common for the money to get stolen, so eventually they introduced little plastic prepaid tokens instead!

AFAIK it wasn't the theft but the fact that no money worked with it: The 20c and 50c were too big to fit into the bottles so you had to balance them on top where they fell off and either got lost or the delivery people had to spend ages hunting for them (I think this would have been the cause of a lot of supposed theft), and a rolled-up banknote would go in but often wouldn't come out again (again, more lossage written up as theft). The designed-for-purpose plastic tokens solved that problem.

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#2786716 30-Sep-2021 00:09

alasta:
We used to have this in NZ up until the late 80s if I recall correctly. You would put your empty bottles at the front gate with some money in them, and the milkman would swap them for full ones.

As time went on it became increasingly common for the money to get stolen, so eventually they introduced little plastic prepaid tokens instead!

Man I feel old.

If you were old you'd know that money was put out by people that had forgotten to buy the metal tokens that predated the plastic tokens. If you go back to the 1920s when Wellington Council milk department introduced bottles they only accepted tokens not money.

MadEngineer

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#2786832 30-Sep-2021 10:28

^ depends on the area.

You're not on Atlantis anymore, Duncan Idaho.

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