Improve Your Recycling at Home

Posted on 20/10/2020

How to Improve Your Recycling at Home

Recycling is what you do to attempt to preserve the state of the planet. All waste from your home, instead of becoming an item of rubbish clearance and ending up in a landfill to help pollution, gets turned into materials for new items. That way there are fewer fresh materials sought and used and, therefore, fewer forests being cut down, less usable water taken, and less energy spent to lower the global warming effect. Recycling is the process that ties all that together and it is a communal effort – just one person cannot make the difference.

Yet that does not mean you should not do your best to recycle items at home properly and even seek to get better at it. You can get more efficient at recycling, yes, even if you are not the one doing all the work on that heap waiting for junk disposal. Just simple organisation at home will improve the process as you are probably not even recycling as much as you can. Statistics show that about 70% of home waste can be recycled and how much of that actually goes in your recycling bins? Here is how you can improve your own number.

•    Start with the basics. You need at least three bins – one for glass, one for plastic, one for paper. Label them so that there are no mistakes.

•    You can improve your organisation by having a container for all kinds of waste – glass, paper, plastic, metal, electronics, etc. You can find smaller boxes for the things you throw out more rarely, no need for huge bins for those as well.

•    You need storage room for the bins while you are filling them up. Usually, the garage is optimal and you can get the best use from it, since you will have the space to set up the bins, and the whole organisation system.

•    Place smaller bins for the different types of materials around the house as well, you don’t have to separate the rubbish while taking it out.

•    Have a small bag for mail, brochures, and notices that would usually end up for junk disposal next to the door to skip the trips to the kitchen bin.

•    Be systematic and dump rubbish conveniently for you – if you have a big cardboard box, flatten it, if you have a plastic ball, crush it. No need to have extra space for air.

•    Check out your local council’s waste management strategy to see what it recycles so that you know which bins to take out once waste collection day comes.

•    Some stores and supermarkets have bins for their own recycling, usually for glass, batteries, or light bulbs. If the council doesn’t take any of those, collaborate with the stores and use their recycling bins.

•    Always be on time with taking out the recycling bins for collecting. As mentioned, 70% of household waste is recyclable, and if you are efficient, your bins should start overflowing pretty fast.

•    Don’t forget that organic waste can be recycled as well. That means fruit and vegetable leftovers, and green waste from your garden. All this waste could go for composting, if you have a garden that you want to fertilise, otherwise seek the appropriate waste disposal method, but don’t keep them in a bin too long – organic waste can get quite malodorous after a few days.

With these tips your recycling should be excellently improved and you should be ready to give your contribution to the preservation of the planet effort. Keep the environment clean and green by having less taken away from it, and that is the first step to a better world.