Recycling plastic sacks

[alan refail]

I am talking here of plastic sacks I get my poultry feed in.

The few plastic sacks I get compost in I can usually find a use for. However, I amass 8 to 10 feed bags per month - a hundred of so bags a year I cannot find uses for. If I take them to the local recycling centre I am instructed to put them in General Household Rubbish (i.e. to go to landfill).

Any ideas would be welcome.

[peter]

Freecycle offer as suitable for the transport of manure.
Offer to local allotments on the same basis.

[oldherbaceous]

Great minds think alike Peter, i was going to suggest horse owners.
I know round here they always used to use old 1cwt farm fertilizers sacks for selling horse manure in, but now the farmers have all turned to one ton bags, i'm sure horse owners would find them useful.

[Parsons Jack]

Around here there are a few stables where bags of manure are left at the gate free of charge. They always ask for the bags back again as they are always short of them.

[Nature's Babe]

Hi Alan, another option, change supplier to a feed that comes in strong paper sacks, I empty mine on arrival into plastic bins and use the strong paper sacks to store my potatoes or under mulch to suppress weeds or composted. If you really like the supplier phone and explain the problem and ask if they could change to use something you can compost, if no one tells them or complains there is no incentive to change. think how much landfill they generate if you count all their customers.

[alan refail]

Hi Peter, OH, PJ and NB

I am grateful for your suggestions. Unfortunately they only serve to highlight my problem, and, in the case of NB, the horns of my dilemma.

Freecycle has proved unhelpful as nobody has wanted plastic sacks. Unfortunately very few people round these parts grow vegetables - I am now the only one in the village. There are hardly any allotments in the county. There are just a couple of stables in the area and I have never seen them advertising free manure. So that leaves me a bit stumped.

The mixed corn I buy comes in paper sacks, so no problem there. I used to buy layers pellets in paper sacks but that involved a trip to the middle of Anglesey. Also they became very expensive (even well before the recent increase in grain prices). So I switched to my local farm stores. So it's a choice: either a five mile round trip or drive 75 miles and pay up to 50% more. Hence my problem with plastic sacks

[John]

Have you tried taking them back to your farm store? They must have a system for getting rid of their own plastic waste and you could add your waste to theirs as you are buying from them.
Can they go into your local bottle bank bin. They are probably made of polythene the same as milk bottles.

John

PS 8 - 10 bags of feed a months. I hope your birds are laying lots and lots of eggs for you.

[John Walker]

Polyprint Mailing Films Ltd will accept a range of plastics for recycling by post, including feed sacks which I guess are probably made of "LDPE 4" like most compost bags are. All you need to do is wash them clean, dry them, fold them up and post. I've attached the symbol below (sometimes it's just 4 inside the triangle).

I collect compost (and other) bags, plus wrappers from catalogues and magazines, the packaging from loo rolls etc, and post a batch off as and when (either by Royal Mail or ParcelForce). Plastic (i.e. oil) is a valuable resource and one which can be readily recycled many times. The one type of magazine wrapper they don't want is those marked as 'oxo-degradable' which, ironically, should be 'disposed of responsibly through landfill'. Hmm.

Full details of what Polyprint will accept are given on their website (including a photo of what not to send). It's well worth a browse anyway.

http://www.polyprint.co.uk/pages/recycling.php

[alan refail]

Hi John

I have known about the existence of Polyprint for a long time, but had never looked at their website, so thanks for the link.

Sorry not to have replied earlier, but I wanted to do some calculations.

Each feed bag weighs 120 grams, so 100 weigh 12 kg. The cost for a 12 kg parcel is £14.69. Or, if I sent four consignments of 3 kg each that would come to £28.24 (£7.06 X 4).

It's hard to contemplate spending between fifteen and twenty-eight pence per bag.

So they will keep piling up in the hopes that Gwynedd council will see the light and take them.

Alan

[Kev]

I believe farmers are supposed to recycle silage wrap and feed bags and there are certainly firms that collect it, if you google it.
You could maybe find a local farmer who would add your bags to his recycle bin.
Kev