The Truth About Recycling

Hi guys, long time no post! It's been a while; I have been on a little reset hiatus. I hope you didn't miss me too much :). I am back and better than ever and ready to tell you all you need to know about the truth behind recycling and how to do it properly.

So we all should be familiar with the basic concept of recycling; you take used items and discard them in a way that allows them to be reused to make different products like plastic bottles or aluminum cans. The majority of the items that are recycled come from food/beverage products or self-care/home care products. However, what is not as widely known is that if recyclable packaging is not properly cleaned before being discarded, recycling companies will often dump all the potential recyclable material into landfills with regular garbage. This defeats the purpose of trying to recycle and reduce waste. Many people are unaware of this fact, and as a result, they simply discard their recycling without completing the necessary processes. Of course, I am here to help you understand how to properly discard your recyclable products after use so that you can effectively help reduce waste that overflows landfills. Some states have different guidelines that they follow for handling recyclable materials, but below, I have provided the basic measures that you can take to better ensure your recycling makes it into another product life cycle.

1. Rinse it out!

   
   

   

The first step to making sure your recyclable waste makes it to the right place is rinsing out the containers or products that are being recycled. It is not a known fact, but one of the major reasons large amounts of recyclable items are not recycled is because residue remains in them. The companies that are in charge of making sure items are recycled do not want to have to go through an extra step of cleaning out recyclable products so they don't, they just throw them in the trash instead. This is why it is important you make sure that your recyclable items are as clean as possible before you throw them into your recycling bin.

2. Separate

   
   

   

Another important step in recycling is separating the different types of recyclable items. For example, plastic bags cannot be mixed with other recyclable materials like aluminum cans or plastic bottles. They must be separated from other materials and dropped off at specific locations for recycling. Many grocery stores, like Target have designated drop off containers that people can use to drop off their plastic bags.

3. Examine/Read

One of the most critical parts of recycling properly is reading product labels. You know that specific recycling symbol that is usually on the back of products that let us know whether or not an item in recyclable? Yeah, that symbol can also tell you a lot more about how to properly recycle it. The problem is, many of us do not know what the different variations of the symbol mean. Don't worry though, below I have embedded a chart that breaks down the different symbols so we are not so clueless.

Sourced from https://www.smartsign.com/plastic-recycling-signs/sku-s2-4427?srsltid=AfmBOoqSu0QcuPGfVyU-JAKDhhYB4Y3Xc051aHHyUCDSQJN_DXYdzdY-

For further explanation, recycle.now, breaks down what each symbol means for the recycling process of that item. These two charts can help you properly separate your recyclable items and increase the likelihood that your items actually get recycled!

Sourced from https://www.recyclenow.com/how-to-recycle/recycling-symbols

3. Research

Lastly, it is important that you do your own research to fully understand the recycling procedures and rules of the state and city that you live in. As stated previously, different places have different regulations put in place that effect how you should recycle in your home or when in public. Recycling process also may be updated or changed from time to time, so this is another reason why it is important to research -- to stay up to date on these practices.

All in all, I hope you learned something from this post and it was helpful in some way to bettering your recycling practices. I know that some of these things came as a shock to me when I first learned them, and I did not realize that so many preliminary steps were necessary before throwing an item in my recycling bin. However, if these extra steps are the ones we must take to help reduce our waste, even by a little, than they are worth taking. Until next time ♡.

-Symphony