Cheaper to use '˜new' materials

From: Michael Plumbe, The Bourne, Hastings
Hastings Observer lettersHastings Observer letters
Hastings Observer letters

It is worrying to read that the contract for waste collection with Kier is ending mainly because of the plummeting price of recycled plastic and other materials.

Many manufacturers will say that it is much cheaper to use ‘new’ materials (glass, paper, metal, plastic) than re-cycled alternatives.

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This is because of contamination (baked beans still in tins) and mixed quality/colours in old material.

I recall, during the war, using loo paper made from old newspapers. One could almost read last month’s news as one sat. Mind you, no one suggested recycling the loo paper itself, once used.

Many cities in for example India and Japan now have huge rubbish dumps in their outskirts. We too have landfill sites and dreadful problems with fly-tipping.

Then there are the ‘graveyards’ for aeroplanes mainly in US deserts. And the sea is littered with sunken ships and now plastic which kills many species.

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To me, the maddest thing is that we spend much money and endanger the lives of many miners digging gold from the earth. Then we use a bit for electronics and jewellery but most of it is fashioned into bars of precise weight. These are then, under tight, expensive security, buried in vaults - back under the earth. Why?

What has our poor earth done to deserve ‘hosting’ animals as destructive humans?

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