If you have ever been to a recycling centre, you’ll know it’s not a straight forward process. Unfortunately, not everything is recyclable. Something that might assume to be recyclable might not be in its current form. To encourage you to recycle more, we’ve put together this guide. It’ll cover what can actually be recycled. By recycling more, you will be doing your bit to help our environment.
About a quarter of what we put into our blue bin isn’t recycled. In some cases, this is because we’ve added items like food waste or things that belong in the black bin instead. Knowing what you can recycle will stop you from making the same mistakes.
Things that can be recycled:
- Most plastic, except non-polyethene plastic
- Aerosol containers from hairspray or deodorant
- Any batteries that you would have in your household
- Depending on your council, you may be able to recycle small electrical goods. This includes most household electrical equipment like hairdryers, TVs and vacuum cleaners.
- Cooking oil if you have a food waste recycling service
- Paper including magazines and newspaper
- Glass bottles including wine bottles and mason jars that are clear, green or brown
- Empty hard plastic takeaway food containers and empty yoghurt pots
- Hard plastic lids from containers like ice cream
few extra steps that might need to be taken to make sure the items are recycled:
- If your plastic or glass bottle has a paper label, make sure to remove it from the bottle before putting it into your blue bin. If you don’t do this, the label can cause issues for the machinery in the recycling centre.
- Empty any food and liquid from the container before adding it to your recycling bin, as this can contaminate the recycling process.
- Reuse plastic bags instead of putting them into your blue bin, as low-level plastic that can’t be recycled.
- Remove the pump from plastic bottles, such as your soap or makeup products.
- Make sure that your aerosol container is empty and remove any loose parts such as the lid. You should recycle these loose parts separately.
- If your electrical device has its plug, uses batteries and is rechargeable, then you can recycle it. Just make sure it has the crossed-out wheelie bin logo on it.
- Remove any cling film from cardboard boxes or any recyclable plastic.
- Take sticky labels off things like frozen food bags and bread bags.
- Remove any compostable and biodegradable plastic from your recycling as this can cause quality issues.
If in doubt, then Recycle Now is the perfect tool to see if your item is recyclable. Recycle Now is a registered UK charity and national campaign that is funded by the government. It gives you information about your nearest recycling facility, as well as which products are recyclable.
