Why we can't ignore product sustainability

I hadn’t heard of Ecobricks; found this https://wasteaid.org/toolkit/how-to-turn-mixed-plastic-waste-and-bottles-into-ecobricks/. You can build with a variety of materials such as old tyres, straw bales and these. It looks a laborious business collecting enough bottles and filling material.

I know nothing about ecobricks but years ago I obtained sheets of recycled plastic called ‘Stokbord’ from a farmer, to replace marine plywood that had started to rot. It is less rigid, so required more bracing.

Thanks for posting this, Ianathome. The research you mention suggests that the usual suggestion of lower temperature washing being the best option might not be wise. I would like to see more research so that we can be certain. I am not convinced about the wisdom of reducing the amount of water used by machines, and often find I have to run an extra rinse/spin cycle. I do hope that advice from Which? is always based on the best available knowledge.

We have rightly been concerned about the damage caused by larger plastic items getting into our oceans. Microbeads have been banned, yet little attention has been paid to synthetic fibre in clothing and other textiles that we put in our washing machines. Even where fabrics are largely natural fibres, such as cotton, addition of small amounts of synthetics can greatly improve their properties.

Perhaps the answer could be for washing machines to incorporate an outlet filter to trap fibres released during the washing process. There is the danger that users could then clean the filter by washing it under the tap, meaning that nothing has been achieved.

I would not suppose that consumer waste is a lesser proportion of the overall waste generated in the UK.

Industry and commerce are quite efficient at extracting value from waste material and can undertake recycling on an industrial scale with processes and outlets that reuse or reconstitute material. Most manufacturing processes are well-designed to minimise the consumption of resources for economic reasons [i.e. profits] whereas domestic consumers usually just want to get rid of it and leave it to their local authority to remove and dispose of it.

As you say, waste disposal authorities are not well equipped to aggregate specialist waste material in order to optimise its recycling economically, although much is transferred to processors who have that capability. However, a lot is dumped or exported for want of a market in the UK.

Hard plastic is a difficult material to recycle efficiently without environmental compromise. Exporting it is arguably immoral unless there is a secured after-market and recycling process that will ensure its safe reuse. There is a case for banning its export altogether but the implications of that need to be thoroughly explored.

Instead of trying – and failing – to find new uses for such material [which often has complex and inconsistent composition] would it not be better to use other materials like aluminium that can be easily and almost infinitely reprocessed [and which has other superior properties]?

A particular grievance I have in terms of consumer waste is beer bottles. These used to be made to a universal standard design and could be reused by any brewery after cleansing with just relabeling. Now no two bottles seem to be the same size and shape so they all get put in the recycling which requires expensive separation and reforming to make replacement bottles. There are also additional transport and environmental costs because the empties don’t go back to the brewery or supplier for refilling.

It is worse with wine bottles which, although more standardised, are generally not returned to the country of origin so virgin material is used to make replacement bottles and the waste glass arising in this country is reused for low-grade applications. In environmental terms this is possibly sustainable since the return transport of heavy material is avoided, but there is an unfortunate impact on the earth’s resources overall. Wine connoisseurs would no doubt be offended if all wine from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, South America and California was tanked into the UK and then bottled here [as some cheap wine is] but that could reduce waste by creating a mass market in the UK for wine bottles and make reprocessing more economical and environmentally acceptable. I doubt if there is even much sensible reuse of wine bottles imported from the European continent.

Left to its own devices, consumer industries will probably not do much to tackle these problems so legislation would be needed to compel good value recycling [both environmentally and economically] but those sort of measures are anathema to the present government [which hardly has time to even consider it].

John, You said industry is good at recycling. I disagree. Your example shows that industry prefers to use cheap virgin materials. They’re not afraid of high prices, as we consumers pay for the “expensive” wines, then “recycle” the bottle. The same in building industry, sourcing new trees, rarely reusing wood.
The quest is – Which area is most damaging? Sort it out, then identify the next.

I agree that there is a lot of room for improvement with consumer industries where marketing imperatives and styling are dominant. Motor cars and brown goods [home entertainment] would be good starting places. Fashion clothing manufacture is also extremely wasteful. But I do feel that manufacturing processes are generally conservative in the use of materials given the specification to which they are required to make the product. That’s where the changes are needed and is a great challenge in a consumerist society. I feel that Which? has a lot to learn in that area

Reprocessed wood is increasingly being used in the building industry, especially in the form of MDF, chipboard, oriented strand board and gluelam beams but there are technical limitations affecting structural components. Wood has largely been replaced by metal [galvanised steel] in the supporting framework of non-structural internal walls. For exposed internal woodwork like staircases, door frames and skirtings – where appearance is an important consideration – the work and energy involved in reforming reclaimed timber to a consistent finish is probably not environmentally efficient. There is no need for any wood to be wasted or destroyed but finding the best outlet for treated or defective timber remains a problem. At least trees can be sustainably managed unlike minerals.