Sadly, I am just recycling mine.
Nope, screw-on caps can't be recycled; in fact, they can clog the machines and cause shut-downs (nothing smaller than a business card should be sent to recycling). I learned this when I went to an excellent all-day teacher workshop at the recycling plant. I learned a lot that day and have made an effort to change my purchasing /recycling behaviors. Some things I learned that day:
- If you recycle water bottles or plastic soda bottles, you should throw away the bottle cap /recycle the plastic bottle. If you send them together, the whole thing gets throw out (because the workers don't have time to separate the two as they speed by on a conveyor belt).
- The plastic labels on the bottom of packaging isn't really all that accurate. In reality, any plastic "with a neck" can be recycled ... so a soda bottle, a ketchup bottle, a milk bottle all "have a neck". A plastic tray that pulls out of a pack of Oreos has a small "neck". In contrast, most yogurt cups have "flat tops" and cannot be recycled. If they explained the reasoning to me, I don't remember it -- but I do look for that neck.
- Any product with two materials cannot be recycled; for example, a can of nuts that's cardboard on the sides /metal on the bottom /plastic lid. You can tear the items apart, but the people at the recycling plant do not have time to do this.
- Bags that contained dog food cannot be recycled.
- Pizza boxes with greasy bottoms cannot be recycled, but you can tear off the clean top half of the box and recycle it. This only takes a few seconds.
- Glass and aluminum are much easier to recycle (compared to plastic). You should separate the lids from your glass bottles, but the metal lids may be sent to recycling.
- "Performance clothing" is becoming popular, but it contains microplastics, which shed plastic into our water supply every time they're washed ... and they continue to shed and shed and shed every time they're washed.
- Some facial washes (and a few toothpastes) contain microplastics, which also add plastics to our water supply.
- If you buy the huge bottles of shampoo (or similar), you should send the bottom half of the product to recycling /send the squirt bottle top to the landfill.
- You can't recycle plastic wraps and plastic bags (ziplocks, plastic bags that held chicken nuggets or trail mix, plastic that wraps meat, plastic that wraps toilet paper, or plastic grocery bags themselves) at home ... but you can collect these plastics in a grocery bag, and you can drop them off at your grocery store. They can /do recycle plastic wrap.
- The recycling people say, "When in doubt, throw it out". They'd rather you throw "an iffy item" into the garbage /have it go to the landfill ... rather than sending it to their plant, having them separate it out and then send it to the landfill anyway. Our recycling plant has a website that allows you to check specific items before you drop them in the recycling.
- Only something like 20% of the plastic we send to the recycling plant actually becomes something new. Most of what we think is going to be "recycled" is actually sold /shipped to third world countries, where it's piling up. This is not fair or sustainable. Bottom line: We need to use less plastic.
We as individuals cannot remove plastic from our lives ... not if we're going to buy food from the grocery store, but we can cut down on our plastic use:
- Minimize your use of single-use plastics; for example, water bottles, plastic soda bottles, individual yogurts. Remember, glass and aluminum are easily recycled.
- Reject food products that use excessive packaging; for example, cookies that are wrapped in plastic + in a plastic tray.
- Use bar shampoo, soap, etc.
- When a toiletry in plastic packaging seems "empty", cut it open, and you'll find at least another week's worth of product on the inside. This is especially true of lotion.
