Recycling At Home – Packaging

Recycling At Home – Packaging

Did you know that packaging makes up around one third of the average household dustbin? And that on average 16% of the money you pay for a product pays for the packaging and this ultimately ends up as rubbish? The term “packaging” refers to anything that is used in the transport, handling or protection of products. “Packaging” covers six types of material – paper, plastic, steel, aluminium, glass and wood. There is also a category of “other” that includes things such as hessian bags.

Recycling At Home – Packaging

What Packaging Can I Recycle?
Most packaging can be recycled. Obvious things such as glass, paper, aluminium and cardboard are easy to recycle using the normal avenues. The problem material is plastic, as local authorities vary hugely in the types of plastic they are able to collect and recycle. You need to make yourself aware of your own local authority’s recycling rules in order to find out which plastics you should be recycling.

Recycling At Home – Packaging

Mixed packaging –

Packaging is often made up of a mixture of materials such as paper, metal and plastic, and this does make recycling problematic. Examples of this packaging are crisp packets and Tetra packs (ie juice cartons). The materials are difficult to separate out without contamination, and there is also a lack of facilities and the technology required to recycle these mixed materials.

Packaging is necessary to protect a product, prolong its lifespan and provide essential information, but there is a real tendency for manufacturers to over-package, very often just for marketing purposes. Convenience foods are the best example of this; they invariably have several layers of packaging. Aim to buy products that are minimally packaged and check that you can recycle the packaging in your local recycling system.
Plastic is a prime example of a material which can technically be recycled, but often isn’t, as many local authorities do not provide a recycling facility for it. There are several possible reasons for this; one is that the cost of collection, separating and processing does not make the operation worthwhile.