Just ‘Do recycle’ or ‘Don’t recycle’ would be handy but unfortunately it’s not that simple:
Here’s why:
1. Some types of plastic are easy to recycle and others are not.
2. There are more buyers for certain types of recycled plastics than for others so recycling facilities have an incentive to recycle certain types of plastics over others.
Plastics that are easy to recycle and more saleable are more readily accepted by recycling facilities while the plastic that is more difficult to recycle or sell are less commonly accepted. You can check with your local bin collectors to find out what plastics they will accept as some operators may have more advanced facilities than others and therefore can accept more of the plastics that are difficult to recycle. Most food packaging and other plastics will have a recycling symbol but still may not be accepted by your local collectors. If in doubt put it in your general waste bin so as not to incur a contamination fine.
Some of the more commonly accepted plastics are:
Plastic 1 – PETE. The world’s most widely used plastics mainly used for soft drink and mineral water bottles, and also any other items marked PETE 1,
PETE 2 and PET 5.
Plastic 2 – HDPE mainly used in shampoo bottles, detergent, bleach and margarine tubs.
Plastic 5 – PP is usually stiff and somewhat heat resistant so my be used in containers for hot food and also margarine, cottage cheese, yogurt and
ketchup. Also used for bottle caps, straws, medicine containers and baby bottles.
Some common items that ‘normally’ do not go in your recycling bin would be bread wrappers, crisp bags, bin liners, inserts in cereal boxes and cling film including the film that covers the top of the food containers. However it is always best to contact your local operator to find out what plastics they
accept in their recycling bins.