Recycling 101: 12 Practical Ways to Recycle Waste With Confidence

The best way to minimise the rubbish you send to landfills is to choose products with compostable or no packaging. However, this is not always possible; therefore, recycling is essential to help reduce our waste.

Unfortunately, working out what can be recycled is confusing and often varies between councils, states and countries. This confusion may put you off recycling or cause your recycling to become contaminated.

Our Recycling 101 post provides some handy tips to help you recycle confidently. With some local research, thought, and care, you can ensure your reusable waste does not end up in a landfill.

1. Identify Which Plastics Are Acceptable for Kerbside Recycling

You can recycle all plastics; however, it is often only economically viable for local authorities to accept a few. Therefore, you must verify what plastics you can put in your kerbside recycling bin.

You can check online, call your local authority, or look at the pictures on your bin lid. Separating your soft plastics is essential. Usually, if it’s not firm plastic, it doesn’t belong in your recycling bin.

Seven Resin Identification Codes (RIC) exist. The RIC symbols appear on the base or lids of products and look similar to the general recycling symbol. The seven RIC codes are:

1. ♳ PET - Polyethylene Terephthalate

Manufacturers commonly use PET to make water and soft drink bottles. It is one of the most widely recycled plastics and is accepted kerbside. Even Coca-Cola bottles now have ‘Recycle me; I can become another bottle’ written on them.

2. ♴ HDPE - High-Density Polyethylene

You will likely encounter HDPE plastic in milk, detergent, or shampoo bottles. You can put HDPE products into your recycling bin if they are rigid. They will get a new life as floor tiles, agricultural pipes, compost bins, crates and garden edging.

3. ♵ PVC - Polyvinyl Chloride

PVC is either unplasticised or plasticised. Clear cordial and juice bottles are unplasticised and can be put in your recycling bin. Plasticising PVC makes it more flexible, e.g. for use as a garden hose or shower curtain, but these items are not accepted kerbside.

4. ♶ LDPE - Low-Density Polyethylene

Uses for LDPE include black plastic sheeting, bin liners, ice-cream container lids and carrier bags. LDPE is unlikely to be accepted by your local authority as it mostly comes in film form. If recycled, LDPE becomes builder’s film, planter and garbage bags.

5. ♷ PP - Polypropylene

Manufacturers use PP to make margarine tubs, microwaveable meal trays and lunch boxes. This plastic is also widely recycled and accepted kerbside. Once repurposed, PP transforms into compost bins, crates and building panels.

6. ♸ PS - Polystyrene

You will predominantly encounter polystyrene as packaging. Other uses include hot drink cups, fast food containers and meat trays. Expanded (foam) polystyrene tends not to be accepted kerbside. If recycled, PS becomes clothes pegs, coathangers and CD boxes.

7. ♹ Other - All Other Plastics

All other plastics that do not fall into the above categories, including acrylic, nylon, polycarbonate and polylactic acid, will have the number 7 symbol or the word ‘other’ on them. You should not include these items in your kerbside recycling.

2. Take Your Soft Plastics to a Participating Store for Recycling

All ‘scrunchable’ plastic can be recycled, including shopping bags, food packaging, potato chip bags, etc. However, only a handful of local authorities will accept these soft plastics in your household recycling bin.

Unlike rigid plastic, soft plastic is flexible and can get tangled around machine parts at recycling facilities, causing them to jam. Therefore, it needs to be recycled separately using specialist technology.

The easiest way to recycle soft plastics is at a recycling point in a participating store. You should check online for recycling points in your area. You may also be lucky and live in an area where you can put soft plastics in your recycling bin.

3. Sort your Bottle Tops, Jam Jar and Container Lids

You can put steel cans, aluminium cans, and jam jar lids into your kerbside recycling bin. However, most bottle tops and container lids are too small for processing facilities and will fall through the sorting equipment.

There’s an easy fix for steel and aluminium bottle caps. Put them in an empty can of the same metal and crimp it closed so they can’t fall out. You can tell the difference between the two metals as only steel is magnetic.

Plastic bottle tops are more problematic. You can crush some plastic bottles and replace the top before recycling. However, you cannot recycle all plastic bottles with the lid still on, so you should check what is acceptable locally.

If you have a glass bottle with a plastic top, you must remove it before placing the bottle in your recycling. Unfortunately, you cannot put the plastic lid in your recycling and may have to throw it in the garbage.

If you cannot put your bottle tops in your kerbside bin, the best way to recycle them is by sending them to a specific collection point for processing. You can identify one that is local to you by searching online.

4. Scrunch your Aluminium Foil into a Large Ball

Most people know you can put aluminium food and pie trays directly into your kerbside recycling bin. However, did you realise you can recycle all aluminium, including the foil from your Easter eggs?

The main problem when recycling aluminium foil is that it is often too light for sorting machines. Therefore, you should save your foil and scrunch it into a ball. Once your foil is the size of a cricket ball, you can put it in your recycling bin.

5. Remove Plastic Parts from Aerosol Cans Before Recycling

Aerosols also cause much confusion when recycling and often end up in landfills. However, most councils can reuse the metal in an aerosol can; therefore, you can put them in your kerbside bin.

The aerosol must be empty, and you shouldn’t try to pierce or squash the can in any way. To avoid contaminating the metal, you should also remove any plastic parts, such as lids or rings.

6. Check if Your Long-Life Milk and Juice Cartons are Accepted Kerbside

Cardboard is recyclable, but what about long-life milk and juice cartons? Long-life cartons contain more than just cardboard. They consist of layers of cardboard, plastic and aluminium foil, a product known as liquid paperboard.

At first glance, liquid paperboard should not be recyclable. However, as most of the pack is cardboard, many councils will accept them for recycling. You will need to check if this applies to your local authority.

The liquid paperboard is collected, compacted into bales, and then sent to paper mills for processing. The mills can recover the cardboard from the rest of the layers in the cartons by soaking them in water.

7. Compost your Natural Corks

It is essential to identify if your cork is natural. Many bottle corks are plastic or contain a mix of cork and plastic and cannot be recycled. Unfortunately, this usually means you will have to throw them away.

Natural cork is biodegradable and recyclable, but you can’t place it in your kerbside bin. Recycling cork reduces the demand placed on cork plantations. Recycled, natural cork transforms into various products, including coasters and flooring.

There is currently no large-scale recycling of natural corks in Australia. Other countries may have recycling programs. Some smaller organisations accept natural corks for recycling, but your best bet is to shred them and then compost them.

8. Take your White Goods to a Second-Hand Dealer or Transfer Station

White goods contain large amounts of renewable materials. Some white goods, such as fridges and air conditioners, also use refrigerants that must be disposed of properly to avoid harmful environmental effects.

You can donate your white goods or take them to a second-hand dealer if they are in good condition. Donating your white goods ensures that the appliances' materials remain in use for as long as possible.

Some companies will remove and recycle your old appliance when they deliver or install your new one. Otherwise, you can take your white goods to your local council’s transfer station for processing.

9. Dispose of Your Hazardous Waste Thoughtfully

Some domestic items are recyclable but contain hazardous chemicals or heavy metals that must be handled and disposed of carefully. These items include car and household batteries, motor oil and paint.

Your local council and some retailers will often accept batteries and motor oil for recycling. Paint tins can usually be recycled kerbside if they are clean and dry. Otherwise, search online for a recycler, such as paintback.com.au.

10. Send Your Phone or SmartWatch Away for Recycling

Electronic waste has become a significant problem. However, almost every part of your mobile phone is reusable. By recycling your phone, you are saving energy and conserving natural resources.

Most mobile phone stores have collection boxes. You can drop off your old phone once you have purchased your new one. Remember to remove your personal information before recycling, selling, or giving away your mobile phone.

Mobile Muster accepts all mobile phones, smartwatches, chargers and accessories for recycling in Australia. They offer 100% carbon-neutral recycling, with some proceeds donated to charity. Search online to find your local equivalent.

11. Use Terracycle for Hard-to-Recycle Products

Some items are too expensive for local councils or retailers to recycle. These items usually end up in landfills, but TerraCycle is trying to change that. They have become a global leader in recovering hard-to-recycle waste.

TerraCycle reuses, upcycles and recycles challenging products instead of burning items or sending them to landfills. You can purchase zero-waste boxes for your home or office or check their webpage for details of their free recycling programs.

12. Sort and Prepare your Kerbside Recycling Properly

It is of utmost importance to sort your recycling carefully. The whole batch can become unusable if contaminated with one unrecyclable object. You can avoid this by taking the time to check what is recyclable.

You should clean food waste from items before placing them in the bin. Scrubbing them clean is unnecessary, but scrape out excess food and rinse if needed. You can recycle takeaway and pizza boxes, but not if they contain surplus food.

Another mistake is to put your recycling into a plastic bag. Staff at recycling facilities do not have the time to unpack them for you. Therefore, your plastic bag and its contents will most likely go to landfill.

Become a Recycling Champion

Ideally, we should all purchase package-free, biodegradable products. However, in the modern world, that isn’t always possible. Therefore, recycling is also essential to help reduce our impact on the environment.

Of course, we should all try to reduce our waste by making sustainable choices and reusing items where possible. However, if that’s not possible, please don’t throw things in the bin you can recycle.

Our Recycling 101 post will help you recycle with confidence. You can become a recycling champion with some local research, thought, and care! Our planet, the wildlife inhabiting it, and future generations will thank you.