Home Recycling: 5 Easy Ways to Become an Expert Recycler

It’s a new year and a new day. We set it to you that 2014 should be the year that we all start recycling bigger and better than we ever have before. Where better to start than with your home recycling performance? Here are some of our easiest ways to go green with recycling at home.

The Internet is a great resource for those wanting to learn more about recycling.

Image from Shutterstock

1. Check your council website

This obvious little tip and trick is so often overlooked, yet it is the sure-fire way to get your recycling game down. No longer will you and the neighbours bicker over that recycled pizza box, no longer will you ponder whether or not your shattered mug is recyclable or not – here is your shining light, the beacon to all your answers.

2. Try to limit your waste output

Recycling starts when we try to consider the possibilities for those waste items. Reusing is at the core of recycling. Before you contemplate throwing something in the recycling bin, consider how and if you can rouse the item for another round of usefulness. Wash jars and bottles to store freshly made preserves, juices or water. Keep egg cartons and toilet rolls for the kids’ craft box.

Check out the ‘1001 Things To Do With Empty Toilet Paper Rolls’ project on Pinterest to see how much you can truly do with the humble cardboard cylinder.

3. Become an upcycling legend

Pinterest once again is your friend when it comes to mastering the fine art of upcycling. Check out POPSUGAR’s ‘200 Upcycling Ideas that’ll Blow Your Mind’ to see some pretty jaw-dropping upcycling projects – Wine Bottle Chandelier! This post is to recycling what Forrest Gump is to running marathons, conquering adversity and punching well above your weight in the dating game.

4. Ditch the plastic bag

Go canvas. However, if you are going to go plastic check in with your local supermarket to see if they do a used shopping bag drop off (some do, some don’t). Any plastic bags you have laying around can be stored till you need them next and you can make good use of them in the meantime by using them to store herbs or berries that you are freezing, or wrapping food that is in the fridge.

5. Get Social

Twitter and Facebook are great places to get involved in the growing community of recyclers. Here you can get inspired with great creative ideas or community initiatives, or follow your local council’s social accounts to get a grasp on what’s going on in your little plot of Sydney.

.: How can I reuse or recycle old glass blocks/glass bricks? http://t.co/rhI6hTM8

— Recycle This (@recycle_this) September 24, 2012

 

Bingo Bins’ 5 Recycling Tips to Change Your Life (And the World)

Are You up to the Bingo Bins Recycling Challenge?

Image from Shutterstock

1. Discover the Possibility

Not everyone knows exactly what happens with a product once thrown in the recycling bin. The reality of what your once-used  drink bottle can become may surprise you, but it may also help you realise the potential of good recycling habits. Recycled plastics can be turned into next winters fleeces and recycled aluminium may find itself on the assembly line waiting to become a bike or a boat! It’s pretty far out stuff. Check out the list below of things you can recycle:

• aluminium and steel tins/cans
• aerosol cans
• glass bottles and jars
• plastic soft-drink and water bottles
• plastic food containers, tubs and trays
• juice and milk cartons and bottles
• ‘Tetra pak’ drink containers.

The City of Sydney Council still advise that it is best to rinse containers, remove lids and crush cans and plastic before putting them in your recycling bin. However, they do not need to be spotless. A quick rinse is fine.

2. Know Thy Plastics

It can be rather confusing figuring out what kind of plastic is recyclable and what isn’t. However one general rule can help make things easier – Soft Plastics? No. Hard Plastics? Yes.

Your soft plastics, chip packets, plastic bags and cling film put the machinery that processes your waste in jeopardy of jamming. Polystyrene products  such as meat trays and foam packaging, though relatively rigid, are also on the no go list in NSW.

3. Don’t Fret the Pizza Box

City of Sydney Council advises residents that you can recycle your pizza box. Putting to sleep a long raging debate about whether or not those recycling their used pide containers are good samaritans or Rubbishing Randys ( I just made that up as I couldn’t think of the recycling opposite of a good samaritan). As long as your pizza box isn’t soaked with grease and caked with cheese it’s all cool to go in the big old yellow bin. A good tip is to rip in the box in half when the lid is clean as a whistle but the bottom a bit worse for wear.

4. Don’t Let Your E-Waste Go to Waste

In a digital age where equipment is quickly upgraded e-waste is building up in homes across Sydney. Rather than shoving your old desktop in the shed or hoarding a bevvy of printers in the linen closet why not drop of your e-waste at your local council drop off centre. The following items can all be recycled:

• computers – desktops, monitors, laptops and printers
• home and home office equipment – photocopiers, fax machines, scanners, servers, projectors, DVD players and video recorders
• computer peripherals such as joysticks
• electronic games, CDs, DVDs, tapes and cameras
• electronic components
• phones – mobiles and landlines
• small kitchen appliances
• televisions

You can find out more about recycling your old e-waste here.

5. Get Creative or Part Ways With the Ceramics

The other day I saw my mother sweep up a broken drinking glass and proceed to drop it into the recycling bin. “Noooooooo!” I yelled and swooped in to save the day wearing my green tights and recycling badge emblazoned cape. Note this is how I look in my mind’s eye when saving the world through my recycling efforts. Just 15g of overnproof glass can contaminate a tonne of normal glass making it absolutely useless for recycling. Ovenproof dishes, ceramics, drinking glasses or mugs are not made of the same kind of glass as  your drinking bottles or jars. If you can reuse it into a nice mosaic safely bin it.

Now you know how to save the world when it comes to recycling. To infinity and beyond. Up, up and away. Go, go inspector Gadget. And May the force be with you.

One the subject of green superheroes, who remembers these guys?