4 **^ Thursday 1 August 2019 The Daily Telegraph
Lithium battery:
used in phones,
cameras. Recycle
at a specialist
recycling centre
TV cases, coffee
makers, phones,
most computer
plastic. Specialist
recycling only
DVDs, sun-
glasses, large
water bottles.
Not easily
recyclable
Nylon used in
toothbrush
bristles and
stockings. Not
usually accepted
Alkaline battery:
used in TV
remote controls,
torches – recycle
at supermarkets
Silver-oxide
battery: used in
watches, toys.
Recycle at waste
centres
Nickel metal
hydride battery:
rechargeable
- recycled at
special centres
Packaging that
is collected by 75
per cent or more
of local authori-
ties across UK
Widely recycled
but can be
flattened to save
space, while
leaving the lid on
Widely recycled,
but the lid
should be left on
to avoid clogging
up machinery
Widely recycled
but must be
rinsed first
to avoid
contamination
Indicates that
the bottle can be
recycled but the
sleeve must be
removed first
Lead-acid
battery: used in
cars. Collected at
garages,
recycling centres
Can be taken by
councils but
often require a
trip to a recy-
cling point
Used for milk,
butter and
yogurt. Accepted
by most
collections
Carpet cleaner,
plastic wraps,
frozen food
wrap. Mostly not
recycled
Easy to recycle,
largely used for
soft drinks
bottles and food
containers
Window cleaner,
detergent,
cooking oil and
shampoo bottles.
Rarely recycled
Disposable cups,
CD cases, meat
trays. Generally
too difficult to
recycle
This symbol
indicates that
the item is made
from recyclable
aluminium
Waste electri-
cals: do not place
the electrical
item in the
general waste
Logo identifies
wood-based
products from
well managed
forests
This symbol asks
that you recycle
a glass con-
tainer, usually at
a bottle bank
The producer is
pro-recycling,
but the product
itself might not
be recyclable
This indicates
that an object is
capable of being
recycled, but not
in all systems
Packaging that
is collected by
20-75 per cent of
local authorities
across the UK
Label when less
than 20 per cent
of local authori-
ties collect it, eg
crisp packets
Often used for
plastic films and
carrier bags
collected at
supermarkets
Some items, like
paint cans, can
be recycled at
recycling
centres
What does that
symbol mean? An
exhaustive guide
to recycling
Medicine
bottles, bottle
caps, ketchup
bottles. Widely
recycled
Silver mixed/
silver backed
glass: used in
mirrors. Not
recyclable
Copper mixed
glass: used in
electronics,
clocks. Recycle
at waste centres
Used in liquid
storage contain-
ers, juice boxes.
Very difficult to
recycle
Paper & plastic:
pet food bags,
grocery bags,
coffee cups. Hard
to recycle
Often confused
to mean recycle,
this simply asks
you to Keep
Britain Tidy
Gold mixed/gold
backed glass:
used for table
surfaces. Hard to
recycle
Plastics and
aluminium: used
in toothpaste
tubes, and hard
to recycle
Special occasion
cards, advertis-
ing fliers. Mostly
cannot be
recycled
Compostable
plastics: can be
recycled along
with your
garden waste
Recyclable steel:
all local
authorities
collect steel cans
for recycling
Plastic and
tin-plate: used in
packaging and
difficult to
recycle
This means that
the product is
suitable to
be home
composted
Brown glass –
used in beer and
medicine
bottles, it is
easily recyclable
Jute – for
clothing and
bags. Can be
recycled at
specialist centres
Non-corrugated
fibreboard
(paperboard)
- cereal boxes,
widely recycled
Paper –
newspapers,
books, wrapping
paper. Widely
recycled
Steel – widely
recycled by
scrap metal
dealers and local
recycling plants
Wood – used in
furniture. Easily
recyclable by
specialist firms
Cotton – towels,
T-shirts. Largely
unrecycled,
except for some
specialist plants
Aluminium
- drinks cans, tin
foil (clean first).
Some plants will
not take it
Corrugated
fibreboard
(cardboard)
- used in boxes,
widely recycled
Cork – used in
bottle stoppers
and place mats.
Can put in home
compost bin
Green glass –
used in wine
bottles and easy
to recycle.
Green glass –
used in wine
bottles and easy
to recycle
Clear glass –
used in drinks
glasses and
bottles, easy to
recycle
Leaded glass
- used in older
TVs and
ashtrays. Use
specialist centres
Light leaded
glass – used in
TV screens. Use
specialist waste
centres
Light sort glass
- lighter glass
(but not clear),
widely recycled
Dark sort glass
- other dark
coloured
glassware, easily
recyclable
Telegraph campaign
‘Simplify symbols to recyclable or not’
Continued from Page 1
Britain Tidy, warning people not to
drop litter. A similar symbol showing a
man putting a bottle in a bin shows it is
glass that can be recycled.
The “mobius loop” of circling arrows
merely shows an object is capable of
being recycled but does not confirm if
it will always be accepted. Even seem-
ingly simple symbols can be mislead-
ing, such as the “Not Yet Recycled”
sign, applied when under 20 per cent
of local authorities collect it, yet it still
may be recyclable.
There are dozens of European Resin
Identification Codes (RIC) – the famil-
iar triangle of arrows with a number
inside to identify the material. Though
they appear to suggest recyclable prod-
ucts, many are difficult to process and
few councils have the resources.
Retailers will often leave the process
entirely to the consumer, stamping
“check locally” on products. Helen
Bird, of the recycling charity Wrap,
said: “There are currently lots of differ-
ent labels, many of which are meaning-
less and confusing to UK citizens.
“Wrap believes that recycling/cor-
rect disposal information should be
mandatory on all packaging and the
message needs to be simplified – to re-
cycle it, or not. One of the difficulties in
doing this is the inconsistency in the
types of materials collected by local au-
thorities. The Government intends to
resolve this by ensuring all local au-
thorities collect a standard set of mate-
rials, including plastic packaging.” Last
month The Telegraph launched a Zero
Waste campaign, calling on the Gov-
ernment and firms to simplify recy-
cling and make it more consistent.
To add to the current confusion, a
survey by Which?, the consumer watch-
dog, found many supermarkets were
mislabelling products. When research-
ers bought 46 popular own-brand items
they found Iceland, Marks & Spencer
and Waitrose wrongly labelled more
than half. Even Asda, which emerged
top, mislabelled one in five of its own-
brand products. The average for correct
labelling across the 11 major supermar-
kets was just 58.16 per cent.
Which? said the inaccurate labelling
made “an already confusing system
trickier to navigate.”
Sian Sutherland, founder of A Plastic
Planet, said: “Industry is desperate to
keep pumping up the smokescreen of
recycling as it enables them to con-
tinue to use plastic as the default mate-
rial for almost everything.
“No one understands all the symbols
on the back of a pack and now we real-
ise that they are pretty meaningless
anyway.
“Recycling is the fig leaf of consum-
erism, appeasing our guilt as we take,
make and throw away.”
A Plastic Planet has recently
launched a Plastic Free Trust Mark
which guarantees the packaging does
not contain plastic.
First plastic-free lunch discount as M&S
rewards customers using reusable boxes
By Jessica Carpani
MARKS & Spencer has launched a dis-
count for customers who bring their
own lunchboxes into stores.
The new scheme will incentivise
customers to bring their own reusable
containers to M&S’s Market Place
counters by offering a 25p discount off
each meal.
Customers can fill their containers
with a variety of hot and cold lunch-to-
go options, including rotisserie chicken
and freshly prepared salads.
M&S is the first of the major retailers
to introduce the scheme. However,
Waitrose also announced yesterday
that it would extend its trial of
unpackaged products after sales of
items not in wrappers overtook sales of
equivalent packaged items.
The “unpacked” scheme was tested
in Oxford, with a dedicated refill zone
with dispensers for more than 200
products from pasta to wine, will now
continue after its original end date of
Aug 18, with the concept rolled out for
testing in three more stores.
M&S’s Market Place is available in 23
city centre stores including London
Pantheon on Oxford Street, Newcastle
upon Tyne, Norwich and Manchester.
Up to 70,000 customers buy lunches
from Market Place each week.
Sales of single-use plastic bags at the
seven biggest retailers in England have
plummeted by 90 per cent since the 5p
charge was introduced in 2015, Gov-
ernment figures have shown.
Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Morrisons,
Co-op, Waitrose and Marks & Spencer
sold 549 million single-use plastic car-
rier bags in England in the year 2018-19,
down from 1 billion over the previous 12
months, a reduction of 490 million.
Stop rinsing greasy pans in the sink, Defra
says as it launches campaign to save water
By Helena Horton
RINSING greasy pans in the kitchen
sink is one of the bad habits we need to
break if we want to avoid a water short-
age in 25 years time, the Government
has warned.
One litre of oil poured down the sink
can pollute one million litres of water
- so people are being urged to wipe out
grease and oil left in trays with kitchen
roll before washing.
The advice has been issued by the
Department for Environment, Food
and Rural Affairs (Defra) which has
launched the Love Water campaign to
raise awareness of the small changes
we can make to achieve a big difference.
Defra fears England could run short
of water in future if we carry on using it
at current rates. At the moment the av-
erage British person uses 141 litres of
water per day – a figure that does not
account for the water footprint of prod-
ucts and services they use.
The UK water industry spends
£100 million each year on clearing
blockages caused by the wrong things
going down sinks and lavatories.
Defra has said that grease poured
into drains can pollute rivers and cause
damage to wildlife, and oil and fat can
also harden in pipes and form fatbergs
which cause blockages.
Experts advise people to pour lefto-
ver fat from roasting trays into a heat
resistant container, then reuse, recy-
cle, or bin it once cooled.
The Food Standards Agency said: “As
long as utensils are washed appropri-
ately after scraping out the oil, there is
no health-and-safety issue.”
The campaign will also target water
companies and other regulators to cut
down on wastage.
50pc
The Government 2020 target for recycling
rates, which it now admits it cannot reach
in time because of the ‘bewildering system’
Zero Wa s t e
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