Recycling. Everyone has heard of it, but what are you actually doing about it? Taking on this practice is one of the best ways to do whatever you can to keep materials, such as harmful plastics, from damaging our planet’s natural resources, reduce the demand for new products, and limit the landfill crisis.
However, knowing how to recycle everyday items can sometimes be trickier than you may think. Here's how to recycle everything you can in the right way.
Avoid Shredding Paper
Shredding is sometimes needed, especially when handling private documents with personal information. However, you should avoid shredding when you can, even if you’d like to fit more into your bin.
So, why is this the case? Well, if paper pieces are too small, some recycling centers out there won’t accept them. Also, even those bits which are recycled are of lower quality. The paper fiber length determines its potential to be recycled into high-grade materials or low-grade materials.
Put The Lids Back On And Squash Your Bottles
After a lot of research, it’s been found that it’s suitable to keep lids on bottles when recycling. After all, loose bottle caps could be placed into harmful general waste if missed during screenings. The advised way to recycle bottles is to compress them to squash all the air out and put the lid back on. By using this method, neither air nor water is left inside, making it helpful for workers at recycling centers to do their job efficiently.
Recycle Your Plastic Bags Separately
Plastic bags can often come in handy for gathering all your recyclable materials together. Despite this, plastic bags are inconvenient for those workers sorting rubbish at recycling plants. In fact, there may be no point in trying to recycle your trash in this way since plastic bags are often thrown away—even when they are filled.
So, plastic bags slow down the recycling process since workers must open them and dispose of each bag manually. This makes the process more challenging.
Keep Recyclable Items Clean
The prime example here is to consider grease on cardboard pizza boxes. Grease actually damages the cardboard material, making it impossible to recycle. So, you need to make sure you avoid placing liquids, foods, and animal wastes into your recycling bin since these things can contaminate recyclable materials.
If keeping recyclable materials clean is unavoidable, such as when your greasy takeaway food is placed in cardboard or paper packaging, you might want to dump this packaging in a compost bin or general bin.
