How to recycle properly, why bother, and where it all goes

FASCINATING footage of what our planet looks like when the human race stays indoors and most industry and mechanical transport shuts down has been going viral in the last few weeks – after all, it's not something we expect to see too often in a lifetime, and it's hard for anyone not living right on top of these phenomena to witness it in person.

From Venice's boat-free canals turning clear and blue with fish and swans moving in, to animals reclaiming the streets, to pictures of bright-blue or star-studded skies above once-polluted cities – and even of mountain ranges beyond them usually invisible – what we've been viewing through other people's photos and videos is a stark reminder of the negative impact our species has on the Earth.

Climate change and safeguarding our environment were right at the peak of 'trending topic' lists until the Coronavirus pandemic struck, but will be back as soon as the Covid-19 outbreak has passed – and in many ways, it has not entirely left us. As an example, Mercadona supermarkets have reassured customers that the plastic gloves they are required to bin at the door upon leaving (to stop thoughtless persons dumping them on the street) will all be recycled as soon as they have gone through stringent, health-authority-approved disinfecting.

Taking out the rubbish is a 'permitted' and 'justifiable' reason to leave your house during lockdown, since it's a matter of health and hygiene, although taking out the recycling is discouraged until absolutely necessary, unless the plastic and paper banks are in the same place as the waste bins. Not too discouraged, though, because otherwise, the temptation would be for everyone to put their plastic, paper, cardboard, tins, cans, and glass bottles in the 'main' bins, returning to the problem we had years ago of landfill sites building up, plastic blowing into the sea whilst more is manufactured from scratch to meet our needs, and trees chopped down to make paper instead of mashing up what we put in the 'blue bins'.

Unlike in some other European countries, such as the UK, where all recyclable waste of any material is placed in the same bin and the rest goes into the rubbish, Spain is among those nations where we need to 'sort' our own recycling and place them in separate, coloured banks. Also, unlike the UK, practically all plastic can and should be recycled – in Britain, soft plastics such as wrappings and packaging found on almost every type of consumer product go into landfill, which is clearly unsustainable and bad news for the planet.

It can seem complicated for the uninitiated, though – and even for those who think they know what they're doing but then come across an item of rubbish they're not sure what to do with.

So we checked in with one of Spain's main recycling management firms, Ecoembes, to get them to give us a guide to how to do our bit properly and ensure our good intentions lead to equally good results, rather than being counterproductive.

 

Keener to recycle, but less able: Masks and gloves

Turns out we're taking far more interest in recycling whilst being stuck at home: Ecoembes says its virtual 'recycling assistant', A.I.R-e, has seen an upsurge in enquiries of 45% in the last month.

A high number of the additional questions, though, are about what to do with disposable masks and gloves: Out of 43,500 questions asked in one month, 500 related to gloves and 174 to masks.

Unfortunately, whilst the absence of humans and traffic may be 'healing' the planet in some ways, the Coronavirus crisis is undoing much of this in others: Disposable gloves and masks have to be binned in the main rubbish, and in the case of those used in private homes, hospitals and nursing homes where there are infected persons, should be in an hermetically-sealed bag.

And in private residences where anyone is infected, nothing should be recycled at all – all of it should go into a sealed bag and placed in the standard green 'landfill' bin.

Otherwise, it could place recycling plant workers at risk.

 

Why you should (otherwise) recycle

According to Ecoembes, Spain – through its recycling – has, since the year 1998, avoided energy consumption equating to 52.2 million megawatts per hour (MWh), prevented carbon dioxide emissions of 21.8 million tonnes (remember, it's CO2 which accelerates global warming, because it heats the planet when it becomes trapped within the Earth's atmosphere), and saved 488.8 million cubic metres of water – a cubic metre being 1,000 litres.

The energy saved would have been enough to supply every single home in Catalunya, Aragón and Navarra for a whole year, and the water saved since 1998 would have been sufficient to supply every household in Spain for two months.

This is because obtaining primary materials to create plastic, paper and glass from scratch generates polluting substances, such as CO2, and uses more water – although some energy and water is used in the recycling process, it is far less than manufacturing the materials from new.

We're getting much better at it, too. In 1998, Spanish households recycled just 4.8% of its domestic packagings, wrappings and containers; 20 years later, in 2018, we recycled 78.8% of these.

 

Fake recycling news

Dissenters will always perpetuate reasons for why an idea they are against is 'bad', and recycling is no exception – those who do not want to have to walk to the recycling banks if they are at some distance, or be bothered with separating their rubbish, will find reasons to justify this. And a slew of urban myths have cropped up as a result, which Ecoembes is quick to dispel.

Firstly, that recycling puts jobs at risk – by not having to manufacture plastic, glass or paper. In practice, though, sorting waste and recycling has generated 42,600 jobs in Spain, of which 9,400 are directly linked to the process – in region of three million jobs in Europe as a whole.

Secondly, that when all recycled material is transported in the same lorry, it gets mixed up and contaminates each other. But in practice, collection lorries have separate compartments, so different types of material do not come into contact with each other. Once at the plant, any material with defects, or dirty or contaminated, is separated manually and fully cleaned first.

Thirdly, that it is 'not worth it', because it does not save on energy, labour or emissions, and is more expensive. Again, as shown above, emissions are reduced by recycling, and despite concerns that manufacturers are continuing to produce new plastics because it is cheaper than recycling, this is, thankfully, not the case, says Ecoembes. It actually costs less to recycle a material than to make it from scratch.

Fourthly, recycled products are of lesser quality than newly-made. This, again, is incorrect: Glass, aluminium and most plastics can be recycled over and over again, to infinity, without losing their quality.

Fifthly, that transporting recyclable material and main rubbish separately causes more air pollution and doubles fuel consumption. Once more, this is not true, because recyclable waste is stored up until there is enough of it to transport in bulk, reducing the number of road trips needed.

 

What happens to waste placed in recycling bins?

Paper and cardboard, from the 'blue bin', is taken to a plant and cleaned to remove other elements such as plastic or metal, and squashed into giant cubes before being taken to a paper factory, pulverised, and pressed into rolls of 'new' paper and cardboard which are then made into shoe boxes, cereal boxes, newspapers, and even books.

The 'yellow bin' covers a multitude of sins – even though the label on it asks for 'containers', all plastics can be placed there, not just bottles and boxes. Milk and juice cartons, cans, tins, and hard and soft plastics are deposited there, and separated at the plant into metals (steel and aluminium), plastics (PET, PEAD, film, and mixed – such as water bottles and carrier bags, wrappings, crisp packets, and so on), and cartons. Most PET plastic, which is the more common variety seen nowadays, is turned back into wrapping and packaging, electrical appliances, and other everyday-use products; a smaller percentage is turned into textile fibres and used for making clothes, rugs, and everyday fabrics.

Did you know that 40 plastic water bottles, recycled, can be turned into a fleecy jacket, like the one in picture three?

Tins and cans are mainly made from aluminium and can be recycled unlimited times; they are crushed, melted down and turned into aluminium sheets which are then used to make back into tins, cans and other goods.

Did you know that 80 drinks cans can be turned into a whole bicycle wheel?

Many householders get confused at first as to what to do with milk and juice cartons. They look like cardboard, so they are often erroneously placed in the 'blue bin'. But Ecoembes says they should go in the 'yellow bin', with the plastics and cans.

They are the hardest items to classify, because they are made up from polyethylene, paper and aluminium, but once at the plant, these elements are separated; the aluminium is turned into blocks or ingots which are then used in industry.

The plastic is removed and used for the aforementioned packaging and carrier bags, and the paper is used for everything from envelopes to newspapers to shoe boxes.

Even traffic cones and plastic bollards can be made from your old supermarket packaging and carrier bags, and it is likely that if you buy a new sofa or armchair, it will be made largely from recycled milk and juice cartons.

 

More fun facts: What you can make with household waste

Ecoembes says eight food tins, like baked bean cans, can be made into a lidded saucepan; 22 drinks bottles, like Coca-Cola or Fanta in two-litre containers, can be made into an adult-sized T-shirt; 550 baked bean or similar cans can be made into a chair; six milk cartons can become a shoe box; and eight cereal boxes are enough to make an entire book.

Next time you pick up a great novel to read, remember it once contained someone else's cornflakes and that if they had not placed these in the 'blue bin', you might not be reading it at all.

 

Common mistakes

Not recycling polystyrene is one of these. It is widely believed that nowhere in the world can this white foamy protective packaging can be recycled; but that's not true. Pop it in the 'yellow bin' and send it on its way to a new life.

Unfortunately, though, there are indeed plastic items that cannot be placed in the 'yellow bin'. Ballpoint or other pens, baby bottles and dummies, broken kitchen utensils such as spatulas and colanders, broken plastic bucket, would normally have to go in the 'main' bin.

You can see if your local eco-park, or tip, would take them, since they often handle non-standard recycling; in fact, anything that goes to an eco-park is recycled if it can be.

Otherwise, the firm TerraCycle (TerraCycle.com) handles broken biros, and can also help deal with other types of plastic that would normally be difficult to recycle.

Plastic toys cannot go in the 'yellow bin', either – if they are in reasonably good condition, see if a local charity, such as the Red Cross, will take them; what is one person's waste could light up the life of a child living in poverty.

One common mistake, as mentioned above, is putting juice or milk cartons in the 'paper and cardboard' bin – these, as said before, go in the 'yellow bin'.

Paper waste such as tissues, kitchen roll, disposable napkins, nappies, incontinence pads, and so on, does not go in the 'blue bin'; it has to go in landfill, unfortunately. This is an environmental issue that their manufacturers will have to face over time, especially as the population ages and more of these types of waste are generated.

Ditto cigarette butts – nobody has as yet found a way of recycling these into anything useful, so they go in the 'main' rubbish bin. Don't put them down drains, though, or they could leave traces of nicotine, tar and other harmful chemicals in the water supply which are difficult to clean and may even remain in small quantities.

For the glass bin, only bottles and jars are suitable – lightbulbs, ceramics (like broken mugs) or other crockery, mirrors, ashtrays, drinks glasses, should not be placed here.

If your town has a 'Punto Limpio' ('Clean Point'), often found at eco-parks, you can take all these items there.

Also, in DIY stores, such as Leroy Merlin, you can deposit old electrical appliances (small ones), lightbulbs and batteries in dedicated banks; many supermarkets, including Mercadona, have a used battery collection point; for medications wrappers – pill blister packs, boxes, suspension-medicine bottles, and so on – use a SIGRE point at a local pharmacy. These are also used for dropping off medication no longer being taken or which has expired – the chemicals are destroyed and cleaned from the packaging, which is then recycled via the usual plastic-paper-card-aluminium channels.

For anything that cannot be recycled – and, luckily, in Spain, these items are few and far between – there are other ways of reusing them that will help the planet. One example is wet-wipes – disposable washcloths, baby wipes, floor-cleaning towels, and so on – they cannot be flushed down the toilet as they will eventually cause 'fatbergs', and cannot go in any recycling bin. However, you can soak them in bleach, machine-wash them on at least 60ºC, then use them again as floor-wipers or for polishing and dusting. When they eventually split, go through the disinfecting process again, and use them to stuff cushions.

Other ideas can be found in our article on how Swedish furniture chain Ikea is leading the field in upcycling sea plastic (if they're on target, their new products using this waste should be on the shelves about now). Some of the ideas we've mentioned are incredibly easy, even for non-creative types, and not too laborious at all – so, while you're still in lockdown and getting bored, take a look at these ideas for what to do with your unwanted plastic.

 

First picture: Ecoembes

Third picture: La Flamenca de Begoña

Fourth picture: Amazon