Your recycle bins sorted – How to separate your household recycling

Did you know there is a new recycling list for Ireland? Do you know what’s on it? If you are like most of our clients, here at McCreery Cleaning Solutions, the new legislation is a little confusing. Never fear; we’re here to clear it up! (Pun intended!)

Most of us do our best to separate out the plastics and paper from the regular household waste and don’t give a second thought to what happens to any of it once the collection agency has picked it up.

Recycled waste is actually big business! The Irish Waste Management Association (IWMA) reports a combined turnover, of its members, of €645 million annually, the bulk of this waste is recycling.

Ireland sells recycled materials such as paper, cardboard and plastic on the global market. China and India are our best customers. You might remember earlier this year when 160 containers of Irish recycled waste, bound for a paper mill in China, was rejected as it was contaminated. To get the best value the materials need to be cleaned and sorted.

What goes in the recycle bin?

The list is simple but the items must be clean. One contaminated item in the bin can affect all of the items and render the whole lot unsaleable. So…here’s the list:

Rigid Plastics

The hard plastic bottles and tubs that you use on a daily basis, including water and cola bottles, plastic milk bottles and plastic detergent bottles, yoghurt, spreads and salad tubs, fruit and veg trays and shampoo/shower gel bottles. Plastic wrapping and netting cannot be included in your recycling.

Tins and Cans

All aluminium and tin cans for pet food, soup, soda cans, chopped tomatoes, baked beans and the like!

Paper and Cardboard

Paper and cardboard make up nearly 24 per cent of waste in a household bin. This includes letters and those pesky unsolicited brochures! Also flat packed cardboard boxes for example, cereal boxes but not pizza boxes as these will have melted cheese and grease marks on them. Egg boxes, toilet and kitchen roll inserts, newspapers and Tetra Pak juice or milk cartons also go into the recycling.

What’s not on the list?

• Coffee Cups – It is a surprise to most people to learn that coffee cups are not fully recyclable.

• Soft Plastics – We do not currently have the technology to recycle carrier bags, refuse sack and plastic wrappers.

• Paper Towels / Napkins – These items are not suitable but you can put them in your compost bin.

What about glass?

Glass is 100% recyclable. However, glass does not go in the recycle bin. Please take glass to your local recycle centre – There are several around Kilkenny and here’s a hand list from Kilkenny County Council.

Some facts about recycling!

• You can make a bicycle out of 650 recycled aluminium cans.
• Each ton of recycled paper can save 17 trees and 7,000 gallons of water.
• 35% of the wood harvested worldwide is used to make paper products.
• It is possible to recycle one sheet of printer paper up to 7 times.
• Plastic drinking bottles can be recycled into duvet fillings, home insulation material, clothing, bin liners, carrier bags, DVD and video game cases, compost bins, park benches, new bottles and much more!
• If you recycle 1 aluminium can today, it can be made into a new can, get filled and be back on the shelf in just 6 weeks.
• It takes up to 500 years for plastic to decompose.

For more information, check out: www.recyclinglistireland.ie

We can all agree that recycling is the right thing to do to preserve a brighter and greener future for the next generation. As part of our ongoing cleaning maintenance packages our highly skilled and dedicated team members are happy to help you tackle the recycling.

We assign one team-member to your home so that you’ll see a familiar face every week. They’ll get to know how you like things done and you’ll get the exact cleaning service that you want including washing, drying and sorting your recycling and making sure the right thing goes in the right bin!