I recently came across a great article on recycling and I thought I would share it here.
Recycling is great and something like 98% of households do separate out some recycling material … but there are some things that just should never go in there.
Generally speaking, recycling in Australia is easy, because we don’t have to separate at the source. Instead, in most councils everything that can be recycled goes into one handy bin, and gets shipped off to a materials recovery facility, where a range of technologies – from manual labour to magnets and even lasers – sort the materials into respective piles.
The bane of this process is contamination, when non-recyclable materials end up in the waste stream and have to be filtered out. In a worst-case scenario, such contamination can send a whole truck of recyclable garbage to landfill, especially if you’ve thrown something toxic like an AA battery in there (why?). (Signe Dean)
1. Banana Peels
Banana peels are great ‘packaging’ on a generally healthy snack but they do not go in the recycling. That goes for any organic food stuffs too … they would go really well in a composting bin though or even on the vege garden directly.
2. Paper Towels
What? That’s paper right? I bet many of us have thrown a few of these in every once in a while. The reason is that the process to make paper towels involves adding some ingredients that actually prevent them falling apart when they get wet. That is great for us using them of course, but not so great when you try to break them down with other paper or cardboard materials. So throw them in the general waste and sleep well for it haha
Hiding in the gym washrooms v ashamed for accidentally throwing a paper towel in the recycling bin
— Rhegine (@ramenprincess69) July 10, 2014
3. Snotty Tissues
I’m fairly certain that the actual snot would disqualify these but even so they are made with wet-strength chemicals just like the paper towels so its probably not a good idea to put them in the recycle. Once again … they go in the regular trash.
4. Crickly Packets and Wrappers
This one should probably go without saying but I have seen this myself in a workplace. We checked the security cameras and ‘educated’ the culprit haha. Unless yo uhave a 100% cardboard wrapper/box then its not recycling material. No process exists to re-constitute your plastic lolly bar wrappers sorry.
5. Paper Coffee Cups
Now this is confusing because they look recyclable (cardboard) and they sometimes even say ‘biodegradable’ on them but that only means that they have a chemical in them to help them break down .That is still good but they mean in landfill …
The cups often have a waterproof layer sprayed inside ts othey don;t get soggy and leak and that is not really helpful in the recycling of cardboard process.
6. Used Tea Bags
Once again its organic matter … and though its in some paper and has a cardboard tag its not really something that should go in the recycling (the hard core could separate the tag off haha). Think of it as similar to coffee grounds … not for recycling.
7. Plastic Bags
You can RE-USE your plastic bags if you happen to have them in the first place but they are 100% not recycling material. It should be fairly obvious but some people get the 2 ideas confused. Try to avoid single use plastic bags anyway but if you do get them … re-use them.