3 Things You Can Do to Recycle More Efficiently

The recycling process, as we know it, only began about 40 years ago. The blue bins were a curbside program created in Ontario in the 1980s. These days, there are many products that cannot be tossed in a blue box but can be recycled. Here are the first three steps you can take to recycle more:
1. Create a convenient spot to collect items like used batteries. Once you get into the habit of independently collecting one item, add another item to your collecting habit, such as used electronics or medications. Use a sturdy bin and print out information on where to drop off that collection so you don’t need to look it up each time your collection gets big enough.
2. Find out where to drop off products that require stewardship programs, such as tires, used electronics, light bulbs, batteries, cellphones, used paint, and medications, and small appliances. Your municipality should have a one-page information sheet you can print off and post somewhere in your home and workplace.
3. Learn about what can and cannot be recycled when it comes to plastics. Here are the proposed labels for Canada to be mandatory for all plastics by 2030. Use this information when purchasing products.

Did you know plastic bags cannot be recycled with your cans, paper, and cardboard? Any plastic you can "poke your finger through" needs to be recycled separately. Grocery bags dissolve into potentially harmful microplastics and, in the case of ingestion or entanglement, hurt and kill animals; they’re pretty much the worst. Even though these bags are technically recyclable, you have to go to a drop-off area to do that, not throw them in a blue box. Plastic bags are the number-one contaminant in recycling loads. Plastic bags act as “tanglers,” getting caught in machinery and shutting down the equipment. I found it surprising that the blue bags I was using to recycle were part of the problem! Apparently, you should empty them straight into the bin and reuse the bag or take it to their specific drop-off area.

When it comes to recycling, one of the worst things you can do is wish-cycle. That’s when we optimistically put non-recyclable objects in recycling bins. When we do this, we contaminate whole loads of otherwise recyclable materials. According to Canada.ca, Canadians are concerned about the impact of plastic waste and pollution and want concrete action to improve the recycling of plastics and prevent pollution.

In 2018, Canadians threw away 4.4 million tons of plastic waste, only 8 percent of which was recycled. Most of the plastic waste ends up in landfills, while about 1 percent ends up in the environment as plastic pollution. Implementing a circular economy for plastics could reduce plastic and carbon pollution and generate billions of dollars in revenue if done properly. The government of Canada has plans to do this by 2030.

Let’s not let the industry off the hook, either. Manufacturers have created a single-use empire built on the false narrative of recycling as the be-all-end-all solution to our consumption habits, ignoring the reality of how complicated and inefficient it really is currently. I say get mad, make some noise, and demand solutions! The fact that materials like plastics are unavoidable in our market economy is not our fault.