❌Myth: You can put whatever in your recycling bin, just in case it can be recycled
✔Fact: Putting something in your recycling that is not accepted by your local Council in hopes that it will be recycled anyway is called ‘Wish-Cycling’ and can cause huge problems with recycling contamination levels. This can be very costly to your Council and mean that full lorry loads of recycling could be rejected.
❌Myth: All types of plastic can be recycled at home
✔Fact: What types of plastics you can recycle at home will depend on what local authority you live in. Please check with your local Council for guidance on what plastics you can recycle at home.
Soft plastics such as bread bags and crisp packets can’t be recycled at home in South Yorkshire. However, you can take them to a local supermarket to be recycled.
❌Myth: If it has a recycling symbol on it, it can be recycled
✔Fact: The symbols mean that it has the potential to be recycled, not that it can be recycled in your bin at home.
It is important that you put the correct things in your bin based on what your Council will accept and not what is on the packaging.
As local authorities do not collect the same materials, the labels are based on what the majority of the Council’s across the UK accept for recycling.
❌Myth: Batteries can be recycled at home
✔Fact: Batteries placed in our bins at home can cause fires and explosions, posing a danger to waste and recycling workers and damage to refuse collection vehicles and waste treatment facilities. This damage is costly and can cause delays to further waste collections.
Please take them to a battery recycling bank. You can find your nearest location using the Recycle Now tool.
❌Myth: I don’t have to clean my recycling
✔Fact: You should try to remove as much food residue as possible when recycling as too much can cause recycling to be rejected. Just give your tins, cans and bottles a quick rinse before popping it in the bin. Top tip: use the water after you have washed your dishes to rinse out any food residues.
If you have a cardboard pizza box with a bit of food grease on it, rip off the greasy parts and recycle the rest.
❌Myth: All waste goes to landfill
✔Fact: Landfilling waste is an expensive way to manage waste. It also means we lose valuable recyclable materials, can cause a lot of damage to our environment, and impact climate change.
We need to recycle as much as we can at home first, but the leftover waste (or general waste) goes to specialist facilities to be processed.
In South Yorkshire, general waste is further recycled or used to generate energy. In Barnsley, Doncaster and Rotherham, waste is sent to extract more recycling (the stuff that can’t be recycled at home) and the remaining waste is used to generate energy.
Find out more about the process on the BDR Waste Partnership website.
In Sheffield, general waste goes to an energy from waste facility to generate electricity and heat for the district heat network.
Find out more about the processes on the Veolia website.
❌Myth: All types of glass can be recycled at home
✔Fact: In South Yorkshire, only glass bottles (any colour) and jars are accepted for recycling at home.
Drinking glasses and glass oven dishes are made from different types of glass.
If you have broken drinking glasses, bring them to your local recycling centre. There, they will be processed along with hardcore and rubble to be repurposed as building materials for construction projects.
Keep broken oven dishes made from Pyrex out of your recycling bins. They are specially treated to withstand high temperatures and cannot be recycled. Broken or chipped Pyrex should be carefully disposed of in your general waste bin.
If you have drinking glasses and glass ovenware in good condition, consider donating them to a local charity shop for someone else to enjoy.
❌Myth: Recycling uses more energy than it saves
✔Fact: Extracting raw materials used to make and transport things, such as wood, oil, and metal ores, requires a lot of energy.
When we recycle materials, a lot less energy is required to process the recycling into a usable material. Up to 95% less energy is needed to make products from recycled materials compared to making them with new raw materials.
DID YOU KNOW? Recycling just 1 aluminium can saves enough energy to run a TV for 4 hours!
❌Myth: Nappies can go in the recycling bin
✔Fact: Disposable nappies are not recyclable here in South Yorkshire and should be put in your general bin at home. Nappies added to recycling bins can cause contamination, which means that whole lorry loads can be rejected for recycling and cost the Councils thousands to dispose of.
If you are interested, why not look at reusable nappies? We have written a blog all about getting started with them.
❌Myth: Recycling is not important
✔Fact: Although we should always try to reduce and reuse waste first, it is still important that we recycle as much as we can.
Recycling reduces the need for landfilling and incineration of waste. It also means that fewer raw materials are extracted from the earth by polluting and environmentally damaging processes such as mining, quarrying, and logging.
DID YOU KNOW? Recycling saves about 10-15 million tonnes of carbon emissions a year, the equivalent of taking 3.5 million cars off the road!
If you are unsure about what can and can’t recycle at home, check on your local Council’s waste and recycling page or use the handy tool on the Recycle Now website.