Recycling has become a part of life. Everyone has started doing their bit to help their community stay on top of recycling. Some of you may throw all plastics in your recycling bin without realising that it may not be allowed. Some items may be better off being collected by a recycling company or dealt with in other ways. Unfortunately, some of you may not know that some plastics are non-recyclables and cannot be recycled.

Here is quick guide on what is acceptable and what is not acceptable.

Things for the recycling bins

There are plenty of things that are acceptable in your recycling bin at home. Most of your everyday plastic scraps can go into your recycling bin at home and be collected as normal. These plastics are usually easy to recycle and can fit in your recycling bins easily.

Some of these things include.

Kitchen – drink bottles, washing up liquid bottles, sauce bottles, old spice bottles, food containers, plastic egg cartons.
Toilet – window cleaner bottle, toilet cleaning bottles, toothpaste tubes, beauty product bottles.
Bedroom – health and beauty products, old plastic packaging, small containers.

Things you can not recycle

Most of us are under the impression that all plastics are recyclable, but this is actually wrong. Most plastics will have a small number surrounded by three arrows, this number is used to determine if the plastic is easy to recycle or not, most recycling centres will recycle any plastic that is numbered 1 or 2.

Plastics that have the numbers 3, 6 or 7 are usually not recyclable and are better off in the trash. This is why it is important to do your research on plastic waste recycling in your local area and avoid recycling things that you shouldn’t be. Read more about our plastic waste recycling services in London.

Things for recycling companies or centres

Although some or most of your plastic waste maybe accepted by your local council, you should refrain from giving them as your local council may find it difficult to deal with such items. Depending on the size of the items they could also fill up your recycling bin quickly which will not only increase your load but may reduce the chances of them being accepted.

Kitchen – Large plastic pots, coat hangers, large plastic boxes, buckets, washing up bowls, plastic cutting boards and generally hard plastics.
Study – Printers, filing boxes, plastic shelves, old telephones, old fax machines, scanners.
Garden – gardening pot, watering cans, plastic gardening tools. Garden ornaments, plastic furniture.