{"id":147,"date":"2021-05-24T15:12:15","date_gmt":"2021-05-24T15:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hydropac.co.uk\/?p=147"},"modified":"2025-03-31T10:06:41","modified_gmt":"2025-03-31T10:06:41","slug":"which-plastics-can-and-cant-be-recycled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hydropac.co.uk\/eco-friendly\/which-plastics-can-and-cant-be-recycled\/","title":{"rendered":"Which plastics can and can&#8217;t be recycled?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13955\" src=\"https:\/\/hydropac.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Plastics.png\" alt=\"Plastics\" width=\"344\" height=\"781\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We all know that plastic is bad for the environment if it ends up discarded or in landfill, but it can be really hard to know which plastics can and which plastics can\u2019t be recycled. Not all packaging labels make this clear, either, which adds to the confusion.<\/p>\n<h2>Plastics that can be recycled<\/h2>\n<p>There are a number of plastics that can be recycled; some we see in our everyday lives and others not so much (especially now that more manufacturers are using green alternatives to previous plastic solutions).<\/p>\n<p>Plastics that can be recycled include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET)<\/strong> \u2013 including water bottles and plastic trays.<\/li>\n<li><strong>High Density Polyethylene (HDPE)<\/strong> \u2013 such as bottles ranging from soft drinks, milk and toiletries.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Polypropylene (PP)<\/strong> \u2013 you see this used for everyday food packaging such as butter tubs and ready meal trays (black ones cannot be recycled, clear ones can)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC)<\/strong> \u2013 commonly used on household piping, windows and door frames.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE)<\/strong> \u2013 such as food bags and cling film.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Polystyrene (PS)<\/strong> \u2013 including plastic cutlery and packaging materials.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Please bear in mind that not all of these plastics are accepted at domestic recycling plants; some, including PVC, LDPE and PS, have to be sent to specialist recycling plants that can deal with them. if they go to a domestic recycling plant, they may very well end up in landfill despite best intentions otherwise.<\/p>\n<h2>Plastics that cannot be recycled<\/h2>\n<p>Plastics that cannot be recycled even at a specialist recycling plant include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Styrofoam<\/strong> \u2013 it does not break down enough to make something else from it. You see this usually as part of food wrapping such as the traditional \u201cfish n chips\u201d or in packaging items for transit.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Items made from two or more separate plastics<\/strong> \u2013 for example, takeaway coffee cups or toothpaste tubes. Whilst they are technically made from recyclable materials, they cannot be recycled together. They need separating before they can go to a recycling plant (and you could probably count on the fingers of one hand the amount of people who do this, if it is even possible to do by hand).<\/li>\n<li><strong>Dirty plastics<\/strong> \u2013 it\u2019s important to clean your plastic before you put it out for recycling. There\u2019s no money in council\u2019s having to clean it at their end, so any dirty plastic will usually be sent to landfill even if its recyclable.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Plastic sleeves on bottles<\/strong> &#8211; The sleeves commonly found on drinks bottles can\u2019t be recycled, even though the bottle itself typically can. These confuse the machines at recycling plants and have to be removed by hand, which means that they can end up in landfill in their entirety, rather than just the wrapper itself.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>The \u201cScrunch\u201d Test<\/h2>\n<p>Ever heard of the Scrunch Test? It\u2019s quite simple \u2013 if something goes back into shape once it\u2019s been \u201cscrunched\u201d up, then generally it can be recycled through normal domestic collections. If it\u2019s something like a crisp packet, then it typically can\u2019t \u2013 not unless it has been cleaned and then separated first, which leads to using a specialist recycling service.<\/p>\n<p>When it comes to crisp packets, Walkers in particular are tackling this recycling problem with their Terracycle scheme: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.terracycle.com\/en-GB\/brigades\/crisppacket\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">https:\/\/www.terracycle.com\/en-GB\/brigades\/crisppacket<\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Did you know\u2026.<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Pringles tubes are known as the villains of the recycling world, as they contain FIVE different materials, not all of which are recyclable! Whilst Kelloggs, like Walkers, have set up a specialist recycling scheme for these nefarious tubes, they are also looking at different and more sustainable packaging for these crisps to reduce the problem.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Pringles recycling scheme:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.terracycle.com\/en-GB\/brigades\/pringles#how-it-works\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">https:\/\/www.terracycle.com\/en-GB\/brigades\/pringles#how-it-works<\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>McDonalds have changed from plastic single use straws to paper versions in all of their restaurants, but these cannot be recycled either (say it with us\u2026.*head desk*!). they are biodegradable which is better, but inherently their thickness makes them hard to process at a recycling plant. In addition, most customers still dispose of them alongside the rest of their meal packaging, and this doesn\u2019t work logistically for collections.<\/li>\n<li>Not one council in the UK collects crisps packets, despite us eating over 5 billion packets a year as a nation!<\/li>\n<li>Expanded polystyrene CAN be recycled BUT it\u2019s so light that it requires specialist machinery to process it. Most domestic plants don\u2019t have this, so only 1% of the UK can actually put things like takeaway boxes into their recycling bins with the knowledge it will actually be recycled (and that\u2019s only if they clean it first!)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It can be really hard to know which plastics can and can\u2019t be recycled through normal domestic waste collections; here&#8217;s a guide to getting it right!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4723,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[201,204],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eco-friendly","category-insights"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hydropac.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hydropac.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hydropac.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hydropac.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hydropac.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/hydropac.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16199,"href":"https:\/\/hydropac.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147\/revisions\/16199"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hydropac.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hydropac.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hydropac.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hydropac.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}