5 Recycling Rules Your Business Needs To Know

Every organisation in the country has improved its focus on sustainability in recent years. Businesses now follow comprehensive waste management plans and invest a lot of time and effort into their green initiatives. Recycling equipment is a huge part of this, but recycling often isn’t as simple as throwing everything into your compactor or baler and hoping for the best. There are a few rules to recycling, and if you and your colleagues are not following these, you could be doing more harm than good. Here are 5 recycling rules that your business needs to know.

  1. Know What Can Go Into Your Recycling Equipment

If you have your own used recycling equipment on site it is critical that you and your team understand the materials that can and can’t go into each machine. Some recycling machines are only designed to handle paper and cardboard, while others are there for plastic or wood waste. If you put the wrong materials into your recycling equipment, not only could you damage your kit, but you could contaminate all the other waste. For example, if food waste is mixed with paper waste, all the paper in that load is contaminated and cannot be recycled.

  1. Avoid Wishcycling

Wishcycling is one of the biggest contributors to contaminated recyclables. It is when waste is put into recycling machinery without being sure that it actually can be recycled. One of the most common examples of wishcycling is plastic carrier bags. Many people assume these can be recycled with plastics, but actually they become entangled in used recycling machinery and cause many problems. Find out more about wishcycling here.

  1. Always Clean Your Recyclables

This rule mainly applies to food waste, but it is a very important one to remember. Everything that goes into your recycling machinery should be thoroughly cleaned and dried beforehand. Food scraps and mess on recyclables has a huge impact as it can cause entire loads to become contaminated and only fit for landfill. Things like dressings and oils wreak havoc with paper and cardboard recycling, while ‘3D’ food causes a lot of issues with plastic recycling.

  1. Break Down Cardboard

Before putting cardboard items into your recycling equipment, make sure you are taking the time to break it down a bit first. Bulky cardboard boxes will take up a lot more space in your recycling machinery and storage, which can end up costing your business a significant amount of money. Learn how to properly breakdown your cardboard and make sure everyone on your team is aware.

  1. Make Recycling Easy

The ultimate goal for your business should be to keep as much waste out of landfill as possible. This means encourage your staff to recycle wherever as possible. When you make recycling the easier option, this will happen naturally. Make sure you have recycling stations in convenient places around your business, such as in offices, kitchens, and other high traffic locations.

If you are looking for used recycling equipment, or want some advice about your businesses recycling strategy, get in touch with our experts.