Ermmmm ... how do I recycle ... ?

[Disenchantegg3]

I bought 3 boxes yesterday to sort things into, the kids want to make drawn labels of what is to go inside.

So whats in each? Any restrictions in them?

Do i need to do anything to the stuff i put in? or just chuck it in?

Thankyou x

You need to check what your council takes.

Ours take card, paper (but not envelopes), tins and some plastic bottles (depends on type). I also separate glass to take to the bottle bank.

Oh and give the stuff a rinse before you do it (end of washing up water etc)

We have a recycling bin but what they take in it is very limited, so, as we're lucky to have the space to do it, we sort into: glass, plastics, tins/cans, cardboard, paper, and juice cartons as our local tip has repositories for all of these. Then we make one big run there every so often.

Check your local council's website - every one is different.

Mine takes glass, paper, card, all cans, and plastic bottles, all in orange bags. And also drinks cartons/tetrapacks, or not, depending on which leaflet you read. Still trying to resolve that one...

It depends on the separation facilities at the local MRF (materials reclamation facility, aka where the trucks dump your stuff). If they have centrifuging machines and electromagnets and soggiators (can't remember the techie term) and air blowers on a conveyor belt, you can separate glass from metal from paper and card from different types of plastic.

If however you're paying people to do parts of that, getting the householders to do some is cheaper and results in cleaner product that can be sold for more. (no broken glass suggests people are doing some of it)

The joys of having control at local level and local solutions for local people... the idea is people with little space for bins can have a different system, but cramped versus spacious housing doesn't go along borough boundaries!