Note: recycling rules vary from location to location, so always please check what the rules are where you live!
Hello bee friends! As a companion piece to yesterday's post about reducing your waste, I thought I'd write another about recycling, because let's face it, they make it kind of confusing, no? There are some general rules that I think hold true in most places though, so let's dig in:
Most Plastic Doesn't Get Recycled
photo from a while back when I did a recycling audit of what I was putting in the bin
Only 9% of all plastic ever created has been recycled, so even though you may diligently put your plastics into the recycle bin, that doesn't mean that anybody is actually recycling them. Why? A multitude of reasons, including:
->there is no market for most of the plastics; numbers 3, 4, 6, and 7 especially are going into landfills and incinerators
->there aren't enough domestic recyclers in the US and China stopped taking our trash a couple years back (and who can blame them!)
->plastic cannot be infinitely recycled and usually is downcycled, which means that it is turned into something of lower quality, which can only happen once or twice. It is not like glass, which can become a new bottle over and over again.
->people bork up the whole system by putting in things that can't be recycled in with the good stuff. This is referred to as wishcycling, and it contaminates materials, jams up machinery, and generally makes it far more likely that everyone's recycling just gets tossed into a landfill (and this is part of the reason that China stopped taking our trash - they wanted the good stuff they could use, but the US was sending them mixed plastics full of things they could not use instead of just what they wanted).
So, reducing your plastic - especially those numbers, 3, 4, 6, and 7 - is good overall. Speaking of wishcycling...
Don't put plastic bags or other plastic film in the recycling bin
You might (or might not) be surprised at how many people put their recycling into plastic trash bags before putting that into the recycle bin. You. Cannot. Recycle. Plastic. Bags. In. With. General. Recycling! This is why you see special collections for them at the front of some stores, because they cannot go in with your other recyclables at the curb. This is a huge part of that contamination and machinery jamming issue I mentioned earlier.
This is why I collect my recycling in my cloth bag which I then empty into the recycling dumpster. Alternatively, you could collect your recycling in a paper bag, because paper bags can be recycled. But plastic bags cannot go in with the other plastic recycling - no matter what number is inside the triangle!!
This means no bubble wrap or cling wrap, either - and no mailing envelopes made of plastic or with bubble wrap inside!
Don't put your greasy pizza boxes or used tissues in there, either
Grease and snot are not recyclable, folks. Sorry to burst your snot bubble.
Check to see what is recyclable in your locality
My city started recycling cartons like the above a few years back, so those can go in our bins now. Years ago, any glass sent to recycling was not recycled, however, even though they took it - the way that they collected it in the single stream system meant that it was all broken up and they used it as landfill liner instead of recycling it! However, they have recently solved this issue and now the glass is actually recycled. It's important to know what the situation is in your city, so you know not only what can go in the recycling bin but also when making decisions about what products to buy.
Rinse out those containers
If your cans of tomato sauce or cat food are coated with crusted on contents, that's a contaminant. It doesn't have to be perfect - you're not doing the dishes, here - but you do want it to be cleaned out!
Bunch together smaller bits into something that will contain it
Usually there are rules about only being able to recycle (clean!) aluminum foil in a bunched up ball that is of a certain size, or that any paper bits smaller than a couple of inches square will get lost in the system, so you should take any small pieces of paper and put them inside an envelope to keep them together and into the paper pile.
Mind the Caps
If you have a metal lid on a glass bottle, throw it out; if you have a plastic lid on a plastic bottle, put it in the bin with the cap screwed on, per this article. Leave the plastic caps off the cartons, too! These are the rules for my municipality, but it's probably the same where you are - however, always double check!
Buy Recycled
my current sketchbook
If we don't buy products made from recycled materials, where will all of those recycled materials go? In order to create demand, we need to demand recycled content. From recycled toilet roll to recycled aluminum foil, these products exist. They may be difficult to find sometimes, but they're out there! And if you can't find a recycled alternative to what you want, write the companies! Ask for it!!
So there are some recycling tips, so we can all hopefully get more products into the circular economy and out of the landfills. Do you have any other tips? Leave them in the comments! :)