I heard that you should take off the caps of all bottles (plastic and glass) before you throw them in the recycling bin. Is this true, and if so, why?
2006-08-16 05:40:24 · 3 answers · asked by CC 3 in Environment
You really should - for several reasons. One is to be sure contents can drain or evaporate and another is so they'll crush, both as noted earlier.
The third reason is that the lid/cap is quite often a different plastic. For example, the caps of 2 liter soda are most often polypropylene (PP) while the bottle is polyethylene terephthalate (PET). Getting the caps off at the recycling facility is impossible, so they are ground into flakes together and separated in another process. That is costly and not always 100% efficient, so the recycle costs more and its quality is lowered a little. If everyone took off the caps, recycling would be cheaper and produce a better product which would encourage more recycling.
2006-08-16 06:07:39 · answer #1 · answered by dollhaus 7 · 135⤊ 4⤋
Yeah so the bottles crush easier, if the lids are screwed on tight thet can't be crushed and also to ensure they are empty. If you can you should rinse things to. I save all my things and rinse them in the dirty dish water rather than wasting more water to rinse them!
2006-08-16 12:55:11 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 24⤊ 10⤋
Yes, This is true.
If you do not, then the bottles are still full of liquid.
They insist that you only recycle empty bottles.
2006-08-16 12:52:11 · answer #3 · answered by Roy C 3 · 9⤊ 37⤋