Good point.
Even plastic bags and those things that hold beer cans together (whatever they are they called), if melted into blocks would become more dense and would also sink to the bottom of the sea.
You probably know something of my background. Electrical engineering, mostly related to industrial process plants.
Many used recycled materials. Paper, steel, and plastics, and water.
The earliest I recall for plastics was where we put in kit for a plant in Stroud. Lovely drive to get there.
They churned the waste, stuffed it it through an extruder, and ended up with plastic sheet for packaging.
That was in the early seventies. We may be able do it better/more efficiently now
Good. As I said, plastics are very useful materials.
They make good bags too! 
What sort of thing would you describe as dense plastic ?
I think charging for plastic bags is a good moveā¦it made us all more aware of the problem and most people take their own bags nowā¦also Iāve noticed not so much plastic hanging from trees especially around supermarketsā¦ok so itās a drop in the ocean but every little helps.
Years ago every supermarket had an area at the front of the store full of cardboard boxes, we all used them as they fitted in a car boot or tied to back of a bicycle fairly well, never see that any more.
We try to repurpose and reuse stuff have been doing it since the 80s, Iād like to see kids taught some of those things so it becomes part of their lives too. Not everything has to be melted down to reuse it.
I used to bulk buy things like fabric conditioner and shampoo etc too but I rarely see any 5 litre containers for sale these days and they were easy to reuse and you didnāt end up with a bin full of smaller bottles.
Why canāt we pay a little more for glass instead of plastic ? many liquids could be dispensed into glass probably better than plastic.
How about refillable stations in supermarkets for some things too, almost any liquid could be on tap reuse the initial bottle you bought. I used to go to a shop where we scooped out of freezers vegetables etc into our own bags. and another had huge tubs of dry goods and dog foods you dispensed into your own bag. I had pretty cotton bags I made to pick up these things easily washed ready for next use.
Iām told black food plastics canāt be recycled well why make them black ? take the colour out and they can easily be recycled too.
I believe that any plastic, if melted into a block, will be dense enough to sink to the bottom of the sea.
Quite apart from that, plastics can be recycled and reused.
I always reused plastic carrier bags to line the kitchen bin but now that I rarely get them, I have to buy a roll of bin liners instead. Thereās no getting away from the fact that we will never be plastic free, it is far too useful. Obviously we need to stop it ending up in the sea but charging 10p will not achieve that. Even the weekly recycling requires certain things like electrical goods to be wrapped in a plastic bag and things like nappies need to be double wrapped in a plastic bag. So, it canāt be recycled but it goes with the recycling???
Iām sure most councils couldnāt really give a stuff about recycling and just go through the motions, doing as little as they can get away with.
I have to admit since they stopped giving them out free I use bin liners too and they are surely just as bad as carriers as single use plastics.
I would think so, I mean I am no plastics expert, so I donāt know if they break down easier than a carrier or not.
Ours certainly does. They havenāt collected our bin for over three weeks now.
I think they only do this nonsense because they receive a hand-out from the EU!
Pathetic isnāt it. Ours has been three-weekly for about a year now. Mind you, I do enjoy watching the dustmen trying to move three weekās worth of cat litter.
plastic bags are a real danger to wild life turtles especially often eat them as they think they are jelly fish ,
So do whales .
I do believe that councils have to pay a penalty for every ton of landfill Longdogs, so they are encouraged to recycle waste. And I believe the penalty is imposed by the EUā¦
I think we all agree with this, Mud, but I say again it is the irresponsible disposal of plastic bags that is the problem. The plastic bags themselves serve a very useful purpose, as do all other forms of plastic. It is a particularly useful material.
If you put a piece of it in water and it sinks, it is more dense than water.
I remember many years ago, at college, learning about recycling. There, as I recall, many forms of automatic recycling machines that can sort through waste of all types and can pick out and divert certain materials.
The more obvious ones are metals of different kind (magnetic and non-magnetic), glass, paper, etc., which are easily identified and can be directed to different destinations for treatment.
Householders (at least around here) are obliged to begin this sorting and I assume that councils complete the process themselves.
It is the recycling that matters: what to do with all of that glass, steel, etc.
I have heard that some glass, for example, ācannot be recycledā. Why not?
I wonder how much of that is ācannotā and not ācanāt be botheredā!
Thank you .
No one disagrees with that what we need to do is stop putting it in the sea. Thatās the answer.
Wonāt bother me as I keep my own shopping bags in the car these days, itās been a long time since I needed to buy oneā¦