Can anyone help? Plastic film recycling

A new grownupgreen member has contacted us with an enquiry about plastic film recycling…..

Emma from Aberdeen says:
Can you tell me where I can recycle plastic film used in packaging?. I’ved been searching high and low for an answer and just stumbled across grownupgreen in the process. I love the site and have just registered. Please help – Cheers!

Grownupgreen says:
Honestly, we’re not sure how much help we can give. Most of you will have the experience of being told that pretty much all (PVC or non-PVC) types of ‘cling film and plastic wrap’ are ‘unaaceptable items’ as far as local authority waste collection and recycling schemes are concerned. This is often because the reprocessing companies used by local authorities will only process certain types of plastic. For more information on this see earlier gug features Plastic Fantastic and Plastic Fantastic 2.

There we are: hardly anyone will take food wrap, or ‘cling film’ for recycling. So, what can you do with it?
Most green gurus will ask you to try not to buy or use rolls of plastic wrap or cling film in the first place, but often it reaches your home covering pre-packaged foods. Can you recycle in the home? We have heard people suggest that it can be carefully washed and used again to cover food that’s being re-heated in the microwave: gug isn’t sure about this – be very careful that the film or packaging itself does not touch the food in question.

Onya Bags sells ‘reusable sandwich wrap’ which may help you cut down on cling film wrap use in the home. Grownupgreen carried a feature on Onya Bags, which has a good sustainability track record here in 2006.

Have your Say
If anyone has better ideas for dealing with plastic wrap waste, please let us know!

Thanks to new gug member Emma. - 28/08/09