Recycling matters: what, how, where?
As we're all stuck at home, eating, drinking and generating rubbish, Alfie Lovett reminds us of the importance of recycling our waste and living sustainably, so that today's crisp packets and bottles don't wind up on tomorrow's beaches
We’ve all heard that recycling is important for the environment, but it can be a pain to have to constantly check the back of wrappers to find out if they are recyclable, and then have to search for a recycling bin if they are. This article answers the what, where, why and how of recycling, to hopefully inspire you and make it easier for you to recycle.
What is recyclable?
In the UK, what can be recycled depends on where you live. Local authorities have different recycling facilities which means that something recyclable here may not be recyclable elsewhere. Here is the list of what is recyclable in Wealden, which is the local authority that most people in school will come under:
Recyclables:
Glass
Aluminium
Paper
Cardboard
Tins and Cans
Plastic bottles, tubs, trays, pots and bags
Not Recyclable:
Black Plastic
Drink Cartons
Textiles
Polystyrene
Bubble Wrap
Blister Packs (e.g. the plastic packaging a new pair of scissors may come in)
Mirrors
Light Bulbs
Crisp Packets
Garden Waste
Food Waste
Note that while garden and food waste can’t be recycled, Garden waste can be put in the brown bin (if you have one), and lots of food and garden waste is compostable.
Crisp packets aren’t widely recycled, but the school actually now has a crisp packet recycling scheme, so it might be worth saving those crisp packets until we get back to school.
The guidance for recycling plastic can get a bit fuzzy, but the best way to work out if a plastic item can be recycled is by looking at the type of plastic. There are 7 different types of plastic, each one with its own number. You can check plastic packaging for this number by looking out for a number between one and seven inside a triangle made up of three arrows. It will usually have a couple of letters underneath it, which are the initials of its name.
Let’s start with Polyethylene Terephthalate, or number 1. This is the plastic that makes your water bottles and some condiment containers. It’s clear and tough, it sinks in water, and it’s recyclable.
High-density polyethylene is plastic number 2. This is all your yogurt pots, shampoo bottles and milk bottles. To help identify it, it floats in water. It is also very much recyclable.
Moving on to plastic 3, or Polyvinyl Chloride. Widely considered the most toxic plastic, this is what your blister packs are made from, and it’s also used for that hard plastic that your 6-pack of doughnuts come in. It isn’t usually recyclable due to the toxins in it.
Low-density polyethylene is plastic 4. It’s the plastic that your loaf of bread comes in, and it’s also used to make cling film. It floats in water and is usually recyclable, but it’s best to check.
Polypropylene is plastic 5. This is what straws are made of, and margarine pots too. Once again, it floats in water and is mostly recyclable, but do check in case.
Plastic number 6 is the well-known Polystyrene. It makes up CD cases and plastic cutlery, but unfortunately it can’t be recycled.
Finally, plastic 7 catches all of the plastic composites. It’s an ‘other’ category. Things like computer components and sports water bottles are in the other category, and because the category is so broad, most of these aren’t recyclable.
Where can you recycle?
Obviously the best place to recycle is your own recycling bin at home, but (when we get out of lockdown) we won’t always be at home, so where can you recycle when you’re out and about? Generally, most supermarkets will have a recycling bin outside, as do many other shops. In school, there are recycling bins in every classroom as well as green recycling bins around the outside of the school, and there should be one in your year group zone (assuming, of course, that this all stays the same when we are back in school).
Why should we recycle?
Recycling is important because it means that we can reuse items that we no longer need, instead of just throwing them in the bin and carting them off to landfill. Landfill is very bad for the environment, because not only does it take up lots of space, but also as materials break down in landfill, they release methane, a greenhouse gas 25 times more powerful than carbon dioxide. Another, lesser known evil of landfill is that it can also produce harmful toxins, which pollute the surrounding soil and can potentially get into our waterways.
The other reason we should recycle plastics in particular is because they can so easily be thrown out the car window, or littered. They then make their way, one way or another, into our oceans, where plastic pollution has become a very worrying issue. Rubbish in our oceans has grown to such an extent that we are faced with phenomenons like the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which is a collection of rubbish in the pacific ocean, which researchers estimate contains over 80,000 tonnes of plastic.
In summary, recycling is essential if we want to live sustainably, as it allows us to reuse materials instead of slowly allowing them to rot in landfill, or pollute our oceans and poison our marine life.
How can we get better at recycling?
It’s all very well to give a complex list of what is and isn’t recyclable, and to explain how important it is to recycle, but recycling can be hard. Our lives can get so busy that there just isn’t time, and frankly, who can be bothered to check the number in the triangle hidden among the other details on the back of packaging? How can we make recycling a quick and easy process which we can commit to, without spending hours trawling through the bin checking each plastic wrapper?
There are a few solutions. My top tip for when you’re at home is to have two bins in your room. Many people don’t have bins at all, and take all their rubbish straight to the family bin, but if you do have your own bin, get another one for recycling. This means that we aren’t putting our rubbish and recycling in the same bin, so we don’t have to put all our recyclable waste aside and ferry it to the outside bin.
If you don’t want to have to keep checking packaging at home, stop buying so much non-recyclable plastic. Avoid the scissors and rulers that come in blister packs. Try using a fountain pen so you aren’t throwing away as many pens. Ask your parents to buy loose fruit and vegetables, to avoid all the packaging they come in. There are so many easy ways to cut down on the amount of plastic we use.
What about when we’re allowed to go places again? Maybe you’re at the park with your friends and you’ve just finished a can of Pepsi, but the only bins nearby are general waste bins. Instead of wasting all that recyclable aluminium by throwing it in the bin, hold onto the can. Maybe crush it so it isn’t so big, and put it in your pocket or your bag. Recycling that can means that future generations will have more resources. That’s why recycling is so good - it’s sustainable.
More details on recycling can be found here, including a guide to what your local authority recycles:
https://www.recyclenow.com
We’ve all heard that recycling is important for the environment, but it can be a pain to have to constantly check the back of wrappers to find out if they are recyclable, and then have to search for a recycling bin if they are. This article answers the what, where, why and how of recycling, to hopefully inspire you and make it easier for you to recycle.
What is recyclable?
In the UK, what can be recycled depends on where you live. Local authorities have different recycling facilities which means that something recyclable here may not be recyclable elsewhere. Here is the list of what is recyclable in Wealden, which is the local authority that most people in school will come under:
Recyclables:
Glass
Aluminium
Paper
Cardboard
Tins and Cans
Plastic bottles, tubs, trays, pots and bags
Not Recyclable:
Black Plastic
Drink Cartons
Textiles
Polystyrene
Bubble Wrap
Blister Packs (e.g. the plastic packaging a new pair of scissors may come in)
Mirrors
Light Bulbs
Crisp Packets
Garden Waste
Food Waste
Note that while garden and food waste can’t be recycled, Garden waste can be put in the brown bin (if you have one), and lots of food and garden waste is compostable.
Crisp packets aren’t widely recycled, but the school actually now has a crisp packet recycling scheme, so it might be worth saving those crisp packets until we get back to school.
The guidance for recycling plastic can get a bit fuzzy, but the best way to work out if a plastic item can be recycled is by looking at the type of plastic. There are 7 different types of plastic, each one with its own number. You can check plastic packaging for this number by looking out for a number between one and seven inside a triangle made up of three arrows. It will usually have a couple of letters underneath it, which are the initials of its name.
Let’s start with Polyethylene Terephthalate, or number 1. This is the plastic that makes your water bottles and some condiment containers. It’s clear and tough, it sinks in water, and it’s recyclable.
High-density polyethylene is plastic number 2. This is all your yogurt pots, shampoo bottles and milk bottles. To help identify it, it floats in water. It is also very much recyclable.
Moving on to plastic 3, or Polyvinyl Chloride. Widely considered the most toxic plastic, this is what your blister packs are made from, and it’s also used for that hard plastic that your 6-pack of doughnuts come in. It isn’t usually recyclable due to the toxins in it.
Low-density polyethylene is plastic 4. It’s the plastic that your loaf of bread comes in, and it’s also used to make cling film. It floats in water and is usually recyclable, but it’s best to check.
Polypropylene is plastic 5. This is what straws are made of, and margarine pots too. Once again, it floats in water and is mostly recyclable, but do check in case.
Plastic number 6 is the well-known Polystyrene. It makes up CD cases and plastic cutlery, but unfortunately it can’t be recycled.
Finally, plastic 7 catches all of the plastic composites. It’s an ‘other’ category. Things like computer components and sports water bottles are in the other category, and because the category is so broad, most of these aren’t recyclable.
Where can you recycle?
Obviously the best place to recycle is your own recycling bin at home, but (when we get out of lockdown) we won’t always be at home, so where can you recycle when you’re out and about? Generally, most supermarkets will have a recycling bin outside, as do many other shops. In school, there are recycling bins in every classroom as well as green recycling bins around the outside of the school, and there should be one in your year group zone (assuming, of course, that this all stays the same when we are back in school).
Why should we recycle?
Recycling is important because it means that we can reuse items that we no longer need, instead of just throwing them in the bin and carting them off to landfill. Landfill is very bad for the environment, because not only does it take up lots of space, but also as materials break down in landfill, they release methane, a greenhouse gas 25 times more powerful than carbon dioxide. Another, lesser known evil of landfill is that it can also produce harmful toxins, which pollute the surrounding soil and can potentially get into our waterways.
The other reason we should recycle plastics in particular is because they can so easily be thrown out the car window, or littered. They then make their way, one way or another, into our oceans, where plastic pollution has become a very worrying issue. Rubbish in our oceans has grown to such an extent that we are faced with phenomenons like the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which is a collection of rubbish in the pacific ocean, which researchers estimate contains over 80,000 tonnes of plastic.
In summary, recycling is essential if we want to live sustainably, as it allows us to reuse materials instead of slowly allowing them to rot in landfill, or pollute our oceans and poison our marine life.
How can we get better at recycling?
It’s all very well to give a complex list of what is and isn’t recyclable, and to explain how important it is to recycle, but recycling can be hard. Our lives can get so busy that there just isn’t time, and frankly, who can be bothered to check the number in the triangle hidden among the other details on the back of packaging? How can we make recycling a quick and easy process which we can commit to, without spending hours trawling through the bin checking each plastic wrapper?
There are a few solutions. My top tip for when you’re at home is to have two bins in your room. Many people don’t have bins at all, and take all their rubbish straight to the family bin, but if you do have your own bin, get another one for recycling. This means that we aren’t putting our rubbish and recycling in the same bin, so we don’t have to put all our recyclable waste aside and ferry it to the outside bin.
If you don’t want to have to keep checking packaging at home, stop buying so much non-recyclable plastic. Avoid the scissors and rulers that come in blister packs. Try using a fountain pen so you aren’t throwing away as many pens. Ask your parents to buy loose fruit and vegetables, to avoid all the packaging they come in. There are so many easy ways to cut down on the amount of plastic we use.
What about when we’re allowed to go places again? Maybe you’re at the park with your friends and you’ve just finished a can of Pepsi, but the only bins nearby are general waste bins. Instead of wasting all that recyclable aluminium by throwing it in the bin, hold onto the can. Maybe crush it so it isn’t so big, and put it in your pocket or your bag. Recycling that can means that future generations will have more resources. That’s why recycling is so good - it’s sustainable.
More details on recycling can be found here, including a guide to what your local authority recycles:
https://www.recyclenow.com