For some time now we have been meticulously flattening cartons and separating the resultant carton packing from the plethora of polystyrene and poly bags in our unwanted cartons which seem to accumulate as if by magic at the front of our main warehouse in Blackpool. At first we were paid £30.00 per tonne for these cartons, then it went down to £15.00 in 2008 and finally to nothing last year. On inquiry we were told that the trade had collapsed and the mills were practically giving the cartons away.
All the recycling firms would do was to provide us with a large skip so we could kindly continue to process the carton and board which the processors were giving away for nothing (apparently).
As winter drew on and it got colder especially in the cavernous warehouses which are bereft of heating, I mulled over the possibility of using the waste we generate from empty packing into heat to comfort the shivering staff who load, stack, pick and unload assiduously in minus temperatures till spring returns. Apparently a smallish incinerator which burns 50 kg of waste an hour costs around £10,000 and the ash produced is inert and can go to land fill sites.
The heat produced in the burning of the waste is harvested in a heat exchanger so nasty smoke becomes warm air and we all benefit except that such heat is not needed in the warm months and the cartons we are trying to burn will no doubt clutter up the whole area. Also, and this is the big problem, cartons are not to be incinerated, only clean wood. Broken up pallets are ideal as long as somebody breaks them up into small pieces and claws out the nails. Printed paper is not allowed as the ink is toxic and should not be released into the atmosphere. Polythene, polystyrene and anything which produces dark smoke is a no-no.
Investing in an incinerator is no joke. You can expect regular visits from the health and safety team and the company will need a dedicated certificated person to feed the wood into the incinerator and remove the ashes at the appropriate time. So I guess we are stuck with the present system of giving away fine clean material which nobody needs except it is going out to China in abundance as one of our major exports. What happened to the fine products we used to sell to the world? Best dinner services, fine worsted cloth, machine tools, pharmaceuticals, pedigree motor-cars, etc etc. Have we
become a nation of scavengers pinching lead off church roofs and man-hole covers in the dark?
Recently my daughter did a move from one part of London to another and had to find some cartons. She paid £3,00 each for a few miserable little boxes and I went berserk! She failed to recycle them of course.
Anybody who needs lovely empty cartons on a regular basis is invited to Feblands, bring a van and assistance.