Philobiblon

A salutary piece in the Sunday Times this morning. Logic suggests that a lot can go wrong with the “mixed bag” recycling schemes, in which glass, paper, plastic etc is all collected in one lot and supposedly sorted later, and it seems in this case logic is right.

Chris White, its commercial manager, said the widespread practice of councils collecting material for recycling in mixed bags meant his plant was routinely sent batches of paper “contaminated” with bottles, plastic, cans and even food residue. “It’s impossible to deal with plastics and other materials here,” he said. “They go into a bin, are compacted and then it goes off to landfill.”