Netflix powered by your empty aerosol bottle – it’s not out of the question!
From your face products to your kitchen essentials, you can make a large difference by taking some small actions to reduce your waste. Join the 20-year celebration of Recycling Week, hosted by The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WARP) to better our separation of waste and discover its global impact.
This recycling week, the focus is on the topic of ‘Missed Capture’, a time to learn and discover those common household items which could have been placed in the recycling dustbin instead. It’s not just your cardboard that can be given a second life. But how can this be helpful to you? What is the benefit? Let’s find out!
Love the smell of a fresh bathroom? An avid cleaner always making sure those taps sparkle? With each new bottle of cleaning product you buy, it’s key to dispose of the empty bottle in the recycling pile.
Often forgotten once finished, shampoo bottles are dealt with but the pile of Detol and Cif sitting under the sink or bleach hidden behind the toilet are just as important. To ensure proper disposal, simply empty the contents of the bottle, rinse it out, remove the lid and trigger spray, then it’s ready to be recycled.
Your work doesn’t stop there though!
That Dove shower gel sitting on your rack is just the same. It might be a quick win to place it in the bathroom bin and unwrap your new bottle – but before you do – consider how the easy addition of a recycling basket or bag could solve this issue. With over 61,000kg of waste in the UK being made up from shower gel bottles, this simple placement of recycling space across multiple homes could greatly benefit our environments.
When recycling at home, we often overlook items in other rooms besides the kitchen and bathroom, leading to missed opportunities for recycling.
In fact, our bedrooms contain some recyclables which could positively impact wider situations when disposed of correctly. If you are one for the styled look using hairspray aerosols, you are sitting on a key to power the TV you’re watching as you get ready. By recycling these aerosols, you can contribute to generating enough energy to power a TV in 273,000 homes for a year.
Sometimes the question “is this recyclable?” can lead to uncertainty. A Google search, more uncertainty. Leading to a quick disposal in the general waste bin. For makeup product packaging, this is often the case. Their structure can often contain a range of materials, some of which fall under the category of not recyclable.
But what to do now?
Many high street retailers have introduced in-store recycling schemes to address the issue of waste. Maybelline, in partnership with TerraCycle, is a notable advocate of this initiative. Recognising their responsibility in packaging creation, the organisation has placed recycling bins in branches of Superdrug, Boots, Tesco, and Sainsbury’s. Customers can dispose of face, eye and brow, and lip makeup packaging in these bins, which are sorted internally for appropriate recycling.
It’s a win-win! Dispose of the old and purchase a replacement, all in one place!
It’s important to be aware of what can be recycled to make movements towards a greener world. You can start by creating recycling methods that work best for you, such as establishing routines to drop off waste or installing a new basket in your home for easier disposal. Want to learn more about Recycling Week? Check out WRAP’s toolkit here.
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