What can you recycle? Almost everything these days can be reculed in most parts of the world. Here is a handy list of items that are used in most households which need not find their way into landfill.
Glass:
This includes all glass in the form of:
Spice bottles
Wine bottles (all colors)
Beer bottles
Juice bottles
Food jars
Baby food jars
Jam jars
When at your recycling centre, make sure you choose the right dome for the right color glass. All glass should be washed and the lids removed.
Aluminium/metal
All tin cans that are washed and dried can be recycled. This includes:
Lids from jars
Food cans
Drink cans
Beer cans
Jam cans
If you Google “tin can recycling” you will find a place near you (South Africa has collect-a-can) that will recycle your tins cans.
Plastic
Learn the plastic recycling codes so that you know what you can recycle in plastic, but generally speaking almost all plastic can be recycled.
Soda bottles
Milk bottles
Cooking oil bottles
Dishwashing liquid bottles
Hard plastic fruit trays
Shampoo/conditioner bottles
Thin plastic bags
Shrink wraps
Ice cream containers
Yoghurt containers
Fruit and veggie bags
Feta cheese tubs
Margarine tubs
Ready made meal trays
Plastic that cannot be recycled in South Africa has the following symbols:
Paper
Paper is the one that is the easiest to recycle, but is also the most overused. You need to consider the first maxim when it comes to recycling – REDUCE!
Cardboard
Cardstock or construction card
Magazine
Printer paper (print on both sides first!)
Newspaper (you can shred this and add to your compost pile)
Junk mail
Phone books
Cards (you can also tear off the written on part and add a card backing and reuse them)
Brown paper bags
Egg boxes (we collect these from friends and add these to our wormery)
Toilet roll inners (although we use these for firestarters!)
Water
Consider setting up a grey water system at home to reuse (recycle) your water from showers and baths and your washing machine. We use these three water sources to water our vegetable garden.
Organic waste
All organic waste can be made into compost and used in your garden. If you do not have space for a compost heap then consider using a wormery to compost your organic waste.
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