What Should Be Recycled?
So, we’ve covered some top ways in how recycling helps the environment.
Now—
Here are the most common materials to recycle and how to go about it:
1. Plastics
Plastics are the absolute worst.
Your flimsy plastic grocery bag? It takes 10–20 years to decompose.
That single-use water bottle you bought? It can take up to 450 years to break down in a landfill.
Other, more durable plastics? Up to 1,000 years!
Plastics are difficult for the environment, sure, but unfortunately, they are difficult to recycle, as well. Not all plastics can be recycled, first of all. Then, there are different types of plastics that require varying processes and considerations.
The Resin Identification Coding System (RIC) separates plastics into seven different types. These seven types of plastic are:
- Polyethylene terephthalate (PETE or PET)
- High-density polyethylene (HDPE or PE-HD)
- Polyvinyl chloride (PVC or just V)
- Low-density polyethylene & Linear low-density polyethylene (LDPE & PE-LD)
- Polypropylene (PP)
- Polystyrene (PS)
- Other plastics (OTHER or O)
The number above also corresponds to the recycling number of a plastic, which you can most often find on the bottom of the item, along with an abbreviation (in parentheses above).
When you recycle plastics, you cut down on the long degradation time, while helping to make sustainable new products. Recycled plastic bottles are used to make carpet, clothing, and even auto parts.
2. Paper
Paper products are relatively simple to recycle.
Depending on your country, city, and district regulations, you may separate all paper together, or separate simple paper products from plastic-coated paper products, such as a Starbucks cup or orange juice carton. In the latter case, this is because it takes special chemicals and an extra step to remove the glue, plastic, and other residue from the paper in order to reuse it.
3. Glass
Glass is just about the longest-lasting man-made material, taking up to 1 million years to degrade in the environment!
If that’s not enough reason to recycle your glass bottles, there’s also sand loss. Sand is the key ingredient in most glass, but the supplies are dwindling. Yes, believe it or not, sand is not as infinite as you might imagine—in fact, scientists are saying we’re facing a growing sand shortage, some going as far as to call it a sand crisis.
The good news is that it’s one of the easier materials to recycle. First, a treatment plant sorts them by color. Then, they give them a wash and remove stickers and other impurities. Finally, they melt down crushed glass pieces and shape them into new bottles and jars ready for us to purchase again.
4. Metal
Metals must be mined from the earth, which damages the areas and environments those mines are dug.
Recycling metals can be tricky, as there are dozens of metals. However, the good news for the average person is that most metals can be recycled together, as recycling plants sort them into their respective categories.
5. Organic Materials, Food & Compost
Organic waste such as food is the most biodegradable of the lot. The best way to recycle your own organic waste is to start composting it. Compost is organic material that has broken down, and it may appear to you as rich, dark soil.
Making compost is simple, and all you need is the passage of time. Then, when you’ve transformed past eggshells and orange peels into nutrient-rich dirt, use it for planting, gardening, or dumping it in a public park (check your local laws first!).
6. Electronics
Known as E-waste (short for electronic waste), this includes all discarded electronic items, whether broken, unwanted, or at the end of their working lives.
The hard part of recycling electronics comes down to their constituent parts—there are dozens of gadgets and gizmos on the average circuit board, made out of a variety of metals, epoxy, glass, and other materials.
However, the good news is that almost all of the components can be reused. For every million cell phones we recycle, 35 thousand pounds of copper, 772 pounds of silver, 75 pounds of gold and 33 pounds of palladium can be recovered.
7. Batteries
Batteries require special consideration when discarding them, as they contain toxic chemicals and heavy metals which shouldn’t decompose at your average landfill. Though there’s a potential for great harm to the environment should batteries end up there, there is also a lot of value in recycling batteries.
For the general public, we don’t have to worry too much about the various metals, chemicals, or battery types, such as lithium, alkaline, or zinc. Rather, just as with consumer electronics, there are often used battery receptacles located at many big-box stores around town.
8. Tires & Commercial Rubber
When a tire goes flat or the tread wears off, that’s about it, even though about 99% of the tire remains. Not only is there a lot of waste in this type of waste, but they take up lots of room at landfills, as well, with 75% of their volume being void space.
Many tires, and other commercial rubber materials, are difficult to recycle, so much of them have been burned to get rid of them, even when properly discarded. However, as technology advances, there have also been advances in the materials used for tires, with an increasing amount of biodegradability and reuse potential.
When getting rid of your tires, avoid the landfill. Instead, Google around for a recycling facility that specifically takes care of tires. If they can retread the tire, it could go back on the shelf for you or the next consumer. Otherwise, at least they’ll dispose of it in a way that won’t poison the ground and the creatures around.
Got a little time to kill and some DIY spirit? Here are some fun, funny, and creative ways to recycle your old tires.
9. Clothing & Textiles
Textile recycling, which includes clothing, rags, sheets, curtains, linens, and other similar materials, is a key way to reduce municipal solid waste (MSW).
If they make their way to landfills, clothing, and other fibrous materials can take up to several hundred years to break down. But, recycling these textiles helps the environment by skipping the landfill and sending the clothing to plants to be sorted, cleaned, shredded, and respun.
10. Fiberboard & Paperboard
First, is there a difference between fiberboard and paperboard?
Usually, most people use the term cardboard to refer to both items, but there’s a difference, according to some sources (though nothing official).
Paperboard is thin and formed of one layer, like paper, but thicker, less foldable, and more rigid than paper (think of a greeting card). Corrugated fiberboard is the three-layer kind you may be familiar with in shipping boxes, consisting of two rigid layers sandwiching a wavy middle one for strength.
In some recycling programs, there’s a differentiation between fiberboard recycling and paperboard recycling—some accept paperboard with paper, others accept paperboard with fiberboard separate from paper, and a few want all three to be separated.
So, to sum up the benefits of recycling and how recycling helps the environment—well, there are plenty of reasons, as you have seen. From reducing carbon emissions to conserving natural resources, recycling is one of the best ways we can fight climate change.
Have any feedback, questions, or other ways recycling protects the environment? Let us know in the comments below!
