What CAN/CANNOT Be Recycled?

Many of us do have the habit of recycling (or at least we attempt to), and that is indeed paramount. However, many times we face the problem of not knowing what we can or cannot place into the recycling bins. In such situations, we either:

1) Dump a non-recyclable into the recycling bin, making it harder for the workers at recycling facilities to sort them out

2) Dispose of a recyclable into the general waste bin precisely to avoid point (1), and end up adding to the waste in Semakau landfill

3) Actually get things right, and dispose of the recyclables/non-recyclables correctly

It is not hard to see why many of us fail to recycle correctly or as often as we would like to!

In this case, why continue guessing when we can find out what kind of rubbish goes where!

Recyclable materials can generally be classified into 4 groups: plastics, paper, metal, glass. These are some examples of the typical household items you may find yourself trying to dispose of, and that you can consider recycling in the future. We understand that at times it is hard to tell between what can and what cannot be recycled, so hopefully we can help shed some light on this matter:

It is important to know that recycling of a certain material requires the old product to be relatively pure - meaning it consists of only the material that can be melted or burned and remade into other products.

So composite materials - or materials that are made of different chemical substances - cannot be recycled, because the material that they are looking for is mixed with other substances and hard to separate.

This is the same for products that you may think is recyclable - such as light bulbs, pens, or even toys - because these things contact multiple materials like plastic with metal springs.

So what you can do is to look for alternate ways of reusing these such as the salvation army nearby - or even sending your e-waste down to Thomson CC.