Recycling & Waste Management

FACT – Each plastic bag is only used for around 12 minutes.

This is one of the most common and innocent mistakes seen. Plastic bags can be a culprit for causing problems with recycling, due to getting stuck and shutting down machines, dissolving into potentially harmful microplastics, or entangling animals.

It is worth noting that in some places, plastic bags filled with recyclables cannot be opened by recycling plant workers and thus may be entirely rejected even if all the contents are recyclable (this sounds wasteful but remember that people put all sorts in the recycling bins including things like blades and needles so safety for the workers is important too).

While standard supermarket style plastic bags are recyclable, they need to be done so at designated recycling points (usually at large supermarkets). A great tip is to have a plastic bag which you can fill with other special items that have the ‘recycle with bags at large supermarket’ recycling information on. You can fill these up slowly over time as these items are uncommon, then go and recycle them all at once every now and again.

Top tips: Let’s avoid tangling the machines at recycling plants. Have a designated bag or box to fill with recycling and empty it loose directly into the recycling bin and repeat.

IN SHORT – Just because you wish to recycle something doesn’t mean that you can. Unfortunately.

Don’t ruin the hard work!

This is something most of us are guilty of, it might seem relatively harmless but can actually create a lot more waste then just leaving the item in question out of the recycling.

One of the worst things you can do is ‘wishcycle’, this is when we optimistically put non-recyclable objects in recycling bins. When this happens, we can contaminate the whole load of otherwise recyclable material (this can be up to a truck load of recycling if it reaches the contamination threshold) which is a real shame.

Different places, organisations, councils etc have various thresholds of non-recyclables that can end up in the recycling. Use this as an insurance policy in case you make an honest mistake, not as an excuse.

Top Tips: Be diligent, check the packaging, check your local authority recycling policy if you are unsure. If you are in doubt, leave it out.

No, that leftover pizza stuck to the cardboard can’t be recycled…

Some people don’t realise that food and other things such as liquids can contaminate otherwise recyclable material. For example, food-stained packaging is only recyclable if it is cleaned first, if it is not cleanable then it should go in the general waste.

Theoretically if a material is perfectly clean it could be recycled into the same quality material.

The next question you might have, is how clean things need to be? There are some misconceptions about how clean things need to be. ‘Surely using lots of water and washing up liquid is not very sustainable, right?’. Well, the rule of thumb is to clean items enough to remove any food/residue, but it doesn’t need to be cleaned and polished like your dishes. The idea is to have visibly clean materials, essentially to make sure nothing ruins the material itself and nothing else is contaminated or attractive to rodents or insects etc.

If it is cardboard with grease and food on it for example, don’t recycle it. This could potentially be composted if you have a food waste bin, but a safe bet would be to tear the clean part off and recycle that, then put the rest in the general waste bin.

Top tips: Rinse packaging straight away before things dry and get stuck to them, it only takes a few seconds. It could save an entire batch going to landfill.

FACT – 99.75% of coffee cups are not recycled.

Combined materials are a common problem for recycling facilities. What are some examples of combined materials you say? Well, a lot of common items unfortunately, the main culprits being takeaway coffee cups, crisp packets, laminated paper, paper and bubble wrap packaging and certain food packaging such as sandwich boxes and the classic noodles boxes. Often these materials look easily recyclable which makes them even more confusing. You just have to be observant; you will get to know what these items are quite quickly.

Some items with mixed materials can be separated into different parts some of which can be recycled. Such as those takeaway coffee cups, often the cup itself cannot be recycled at home but the cardboard bit that goes round the sides to stop you burning your hand and the lid can be recycled.

The cups in specialist facilities are actually recyclable and some places provide this service such as some coffee shops however this must be done in store which defeats the takeaway aspect in many cases.

Top Tips: Try to avoid buying things that come in combined materials that cannot be separated. For example, bring a reusable coffee cup to your local coffee shop.

FACT – 1,135,000 tonnes of plastic packaging was recycled in 2019… 1 tonne = 25,000 plastic bottles

As you probably know, unfortunately (for recycling’s sake) not all plastics are created equal. It is an unfortunate reality that there around 40,000 types of plastic out there.

Fortunately for our sanity they have been categorised into 7 types, however this doesn’t make things much easier for recycling facilities. They all have various properties that make each one valuable for different reasons, this same fact means there are different treatments needed for all these plastics to be recycled.

The recyclability of plastic is also one of its key strengths as an extremely resource-efficient material and used plastic should ideally be regarded as a valuable resource rather than ‘waste’. As theoretically plastic should be 100% recyclable. Though in reality this is not the case for a few reasons. Such as difficulty separating all kinds which leads to inevitable mixing, and contamination among other things.

Softer plastics in general are the ones easier to recycle. Anything super thin (like bags and plastic wrap) can be a problem when mixed into regular recycling as it can get tangled in the sorting machines.

A lot of plastic items cannot be recycled at home such as clamshell food containers, films, plastic cutlery, straws and many more. This instantly reduces the number of recyclable things that most people can easily recycle.

Some product labels will say ‘recycle with bags at supermarket’ (or something similar). These items should be put in that extra recycling bag we mentioned earlier (section 1) which can be used for collecting the odd harder to recycle items. This can then be dropped off together at larger supermarkets and taken to specialist recycling plants.

Rigid plastics are recyclable labelled by codes 1 – 7. The higher the number the harder it is to recycle (generally). Most kerbside recycling accepts 1-2 past that it depends (you should check this with your local recycling to be sure.

The plastics which generally can be recycled include: Food containers, household cleaning products, milk cartons, drinks bottles.

Top tips: All this gets complicated but just remember… Check the packaging and check your local authority’s recycling policy.

Lids used to be non-recyclable, since then facilities have improved and they can be recycled, however they must be left on the container.

Small items and very thin items can cause problems in the recycling system. Big machines are used to sort through the various materials and sort them into categories. As you can imagine this is a very difficult thing to do. It doesn’t help that the mix of materials is constantly changing due to people’s consumption habits and business’ use of packaging.

Small things can either fall right through and get lost or cause these machines to jam by getting stuck in the mechanisms. The rule is don’t recycle anything smaller than a credit card at home (unless stated by your local authority). This includes things like straws, bottle caps, coffee pods, plastic cutlery, paperclips, shredded paper and other tiny things. If you know the material is recyclable but not at home collections (like bags, crisp packets etc) then these can go in the bag you have for things that will get recycled at the supermarket (section 1) or specialist recycling plants.

Leave bottle caps on bottles, this solves the problem of them being too small. Containers with the lid on will ensure that everything including the lid is recycled.

Top Tips: Leave small items like lids on containers to be recycled normally. Anything which is separate and is recyclable should be recycled specially, supermarkets will often take things like cereal box liners.

FACT – 85% of us contaminate our recycling bins with items such as drinking glasses, toothpaste tubes, and plastic film lids.

Did you know? There are around 21 recycling labels used in the UK. It is no wonder why 75% of people in the UK are unsure what various recycling labels mean.

The best way to find out which things can be recycled and where, is to learn for yourself. You can do this by looking on resources like the one below (recyclenow.com). The good news is once you learn which items go where you will know that moving forward.

Another way is experience. This is what you are probably already doing if you have tried to improve your waste management skills. Simply this means checking packaging and doing your best to dispose of the items the correct way. The benefit of doing this is you better understand the specific items you tend to use and how best to recycle them.

The more you recycle and check which items go in which bins the more it becomes second nature, and then you will be able to do it without thinking.

Top tips: Try learning what can be recycled and how it should be recycled. Use resources like https://www.recyclenow.com/recycle-an-item which aim to make things easier to understand, here you can search the item you are looking for.

England – 2003 – The Household Waste Recycling Act – With the introduction of this recycling legislation, it became law that local authorities in England provide every household with the collection of at least two types of recyclable materials by 2010

Petitioning governments, organisations, and companies to improve the ability to recycle is a great idea. The more people care about these issues the more pressure these organisations will feel to make change.

Some companies are better than others with putting in effort to ensure more of their packaging is recyclable. Aldi is one supermarket where there has been a conscious effort to ensure items of packaging are made with sustainability in mind. For example, in 2022 their easter egg boxes were made with clear cellulose (from plants) windows in the front instead of plastic, this could be recycled along with the cardboard packaging. As you know from earlier (#4) most combined materials are a problem for recycling. By making the effort Aldi overcame this issue. When you think 80 million easter eggs are bought yearly in the UK this can add up!

A lot of the issues with recycling and recycling rates ends up coming down to manufacturers and their use of many different materials and a lack of consideration of how these can be recycled. As you have seen there are endless types of materials and combinations of these. Particularly with plastic, even some plastics that are the same PET type cannot be recycled together for reasons like colour and different material make ups.

One option we have as consumers is not to buy certain things or to speak up and let it be known that we care about what materials are used and the impact they have. Although companies make the products, they will listen up when their customers demand change. There are always other companies ready to capitalise when we demand changes, it might cost more or take more time to do the research at first. But once a certain amount of people demand change then it becomes expected from companies and governments to adapt.

Top Tips: Vote with your money and choices, sign petitions, show your support during national days such as recycling week (17-23 October 2022) and food waste action week (6 – 12 March 2023).