8 recycling mistakes MOST people make and how to avoid them

While recycling isn’t the green solution to waste we once thought, it still plays an important role in managing our waste, at least for the time being. I like to see myself (and our society) as transitioning towards zero waste, which not only means generating less waste, but also generating less recycling. Yep you read that right: we need to recycle LESS (read more about that in an earlier article). This basically means we need to buy less disposable stuff. But in the meantime, here are a few tips to make sure you’re recycling correctly.

So many recycling bins I walk past each week in the area where I live (with a mostly highly-educated, upper-middle class, SUPPOSEDLY environmentally-aware population), contain so many things that shouldn’t be in there. Many of us are ‘aspirational recyclers’, meaning we want things to be recyclable so we put them in our recycling bin. But not only does this fool us into thinking we’re greener than we actually are, it can also result in contamination of entire shipments of recyclable materials, meaning the whole lot has to go to landfill ☹ ☹ ☹!

So we need to make sure we are NOT trying to recycle things that can’t be recycled and that we ARE recycling everything that can be. Here are 8 common recycling mistakes that many people make:

1. Not recycling anything that isn’t from the kitchen — I recall a conversation with two work colleagues from a few years ago, when we were discussing which recyclables we rinse out before putting them in the bin. I mentioned I didn’t bother washing out shampoo bottles and they gave me a funny look. Yeh ok, why would you bother + you don’t need to anyway. But turns out it was too inconvenient to even RECYCLE them at all (to take them ALL that way to the kitchen recycling bin) and so they would just put them in the rubbish bin. And I’m guessing they’re not the only ones. I’ve also noticed that many people don’t recycle the cardboard inside toilet paper rolls. It’s not really that difficult to put shampoo/conditioner bottles and other recyclables from the bathroom, bedroom, etc. in the kitchen recycling bin. It’s not like we’re throwing them out every day or like the kitchen is five miles away.

2. Not removing caps or lids from glass bottles/jars — most people leave caps or lids on glass bottles and jars but they should actually be removed, a) because it makes it easier to recycle the glass and b) the caps or lids won’t actually get recycled when they’re…