Yesterday saw the end of Recycle Week 2016, which ran from 12-18th September. For those who missed out, the theme was “The Unusual Suspects” aimed at getting the public thinking of unusual household waste that could be recycled. It’s not too late to get involved, lets look at the unusual suspects you may have in your waste.
Most of us are great at recycling obvious waste items such as newspapers, cans and drinks bottles but there’s so much more lurking in your bins. For example, when you’re mid way through cleaning the bathroom and the cleaning product runs out, what do you do with the empty bottle? Do you consider this as waste and put in the bin? Removing the lid and carefully rinsing ensures it can now be recycled. Now look around the bathroom and spot how many other containers could be recycled when finished. The shampoo bottle, toilet roll sleeve, toothpaste box etc. Recycling one bleach bottle saves enough energy power a street light for 6½ hours.
In order to look and smell our best we use many beauty products within the home. Perfumes, shave foams, deodorants etc. all come in packaging which is easy to recycle. Not all of these items can be collected by the roadside in your usual collection so have a look at the recycling locator and see what’s available in your area.
Moving around the house, another room that will generate a lot of waste is the kitchen. The obvious food waste can be composted/recycled but what about the less obvious items. Unfortunately our food is often over packaged, usually in good recyclable materials. If it is in direct contact with our food we often class this as dirty and throw it away. A simple solution is to quickly rinse items and put in the recycling bin. Consider this for items such as fruit punnets and yoghurt pots, they’re easily recyclable once clean and won’t make your bins smell over time. If every UK household recycled one more plastic yoghurt pot, it would save the same weight as 5½ London Underground carriages going into landfill.
If you find other items around the home that you can recycle, why not tell everyone in the house. This way we ensure recyclable items don’t fall through the net and end up in the waste bin. We hope that highlighting some of these easy to recycle items can help you look through what you throw out and question whether it can be recycled.
Unusual Suspects waste facts
- If everyone recycled one more toilet roll tube, it would save enough cardboard inner tubes from landfill to go round the M25 38 times.
- It would save £98,000 in landfill costs if every UK household threw their next empty toothpaste box in to the recycling bin.
- It would save £135,000 in landfill costs if every UK household threw their next empty shampoo bottle in to the recycling bin.
- If every person in the UK recycled one more deodorant can, it would save the same weight as 3 Angel of the North’s going into landfill.
- Recycling one hand soap dispenser every month for a year saves enough energy to bake yourself a birthday cake and a christmas cake.
- Recycling one shower gel bottle saves enough energy to toast nearly 3 rounds of bread.
- Recycling one shampoo bottle saves enough energy to toast 4½ rounds of bread.
- Recycling one fruit punnet saves enough energy to juice for 6½ minutes.
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