Why do lids stay on the jar? And other recycling mysteries

[Cloouudnine]

Can anyone help me understand, why do we leave the lids/screw tops on glass jars and bottles for recycling? I have never understood this; surely someone isn’t taking all the lids off them one by one to separate the pure glass?

Also - are you supposed to remove the plastic window before recycling an envelope? I always thought Yes but dh says the window can be recycled with the paper.

and when you recycle plastic bottles do you remove the plastic-wrap label and recycle that in soft plastics separately?

and for tins, do you remove the paper label and then save the scraps to screw in a ball with other scrap paper so it’s big enough to recycle?

And if one person does it wrong, is a whole batch spoiled?

And any other mysteries of recycling you care to solve!

I don't leave the lids on the jars, I don't think I've ever seen any guidance on whether to do that or not.

With the tin cans, I usually rip off the paper label and put the tin and paper separately but I would imagine it depends on what the system is in your area. With plastic bottles, I use those little cholesterol lowering drinks and there is a perforated strip to pull the outer label off so I do that and just put the actual bottle bit in the bin.

I always take the lids off and put them in metal recycling. That said glass is smashed to smithereens generally. In my council we use bottle banks. These are lifted up and the base base flaps open and empties into a truck then it’s taken to the depot and emptied into a concrete bay. With lots of other loads of glass. Then it’s scooped up by a digger into another lorry. Then it’s tipped out at recycling centre. Once there it’ll pass under powerful magnets and any lids mixed in with broken glass will be separated.

Also the plastics thing. It used to be a bottle, lid and wrapper were made out of three different kinds Of plastic, nightmare for recyclers. I think cop 27.changed the rules and now bottles are designed to be recycled as a whole which is why lids are attached.

I always take lids off bottles and jars -are we meant to leave them on?

I always leave lids on bottles, where we leave metal and glass is seperate, so we always remove lids from jars.

About 70% of recycling waste in the U.K. is contaminated and just goes straight for incineration, apparently, so it probably doesn’t matter.

Just realised I never take the paper off cans/tins😳

I did watch a documentary on a recycling plant once that showed a machine taking all these 'unwanted' bits off, separating/mulching them and then recycling again.

Are you sure you're supposed to be leaving lids on jars? My local council explicitly tells you to take them off.

But yes it'll be all smashed up anyway, so they can remove the metal from the crushed glass using magnets if they have the facilities to do that.

why do we leave the lids/screw tops on glass jars and bottles for recycling?

We don't.

I heard a recycling expert say do put the lids back on plastic milk containers after squashing so the lids don't get lost when the plastics are separated, maybe that's what's confusing you?

I always take the lids and tops off jars and glass bottles. I always though that you had to. Rarely use tins but don't remove the paper from them. To be honest never thought about it.

Yes jar lids should be removed (I'm constantly reminding DH) and I don't think the lids are recyclable anyway, as they're made from more than one material

Another area where the glass recycling bins specifically say to leave the lids on and no it doesn't make any sense to me either. Surely it would be much easier to use the magnet on lids not attached to parts of their smashed bottles??

We went to a "recycling" plant years ago on a group visit and it was really disappointing. The person doing the tour was asked how we knew the recyclables that they sent to Turkey were being actually recycled rather than dumped or burned, and he basically said they were trustworthy? And lots of the waste at that particular recycling plant was indeed incinerated.

We leave lids on and leave labels on cans, bottles and jars.
Our recycling is collected in boxes and we're asked to keep most of the different materials separate in the boxes so glass in one box, plastics and cans in another and paper and card goes in the reusable bag. All the materials are kept separate on the vehicle. At the depot the plastics and cans are separated into steel, aluminium and two types of plastic. Everything goes to recycling companies in the UK. Nothing is sent overseas.

We are specifically requested to remove lids and recycle separately. Makes sense.

Our council has told us to leave the lids on, for plastic bottles, as their recycling machines can now cope with different types of plastic on one item.

Generally with glass and metal they're both melted down to be reused.

Different materials melt at different temps, so generally the aluminium cans, jar lids etc will melt first at about 660 degrees C, and are seperated out, then the glass will melt at nearly double the temperature.

Glass and metal are collected together in one bag here so I leave the lids on. But I’ve put them back on after removing them to wash the jar so it doesn’t really make sense.

Check your council website for full instructions.
We don’t leave lids on jars here, they get put in the plastic and metal recycling container, glass is separate, paper labels off items, plastic labels into soft recycling collection that I take to the supermarket for recycling.

And if one person does it wrong, is a whole batch spoiled?

Yes, it contaminates the whole batch unless it’s spotted and pulled out.

Our glass recycling bin specifically states that metal lids should be left on.

Oh my. I forgot I started this thread and I’ve come back and it all seems very confusing and varies a lot from one LA to the next!

so, since my LA says leave lids on - then that means leave METAL lids and caps on and that’s ok. But if I don’t leave them on that’s probably ok too, just means the lid isn’t recycled.

I still don’t know about the windows in envelopes …

I suspect every batch is spoiled in some way, I can’t imagine everyone gets it right. No wonder so much ends up being burned or dumped. It’s so sad.