Despite being very Ski Green, perhaps we’re just late to the party… However, we were surprised to discover this symbol does NOT mean you can recycle the packaging on which it features.
This logo means that the item is made of recycled material. If you put non-recyclable material in a bin with your recyclable packaging, there’s a risk that an entire batch of recycling could be contaminated. This will result in it ending up in a landfill.
This symbol means that you can recycle
Recently China stopped buying recyclable packaging from the West. This means that, most likely, your recycling is being stockpiled at local landfill. This change in who’s sorting our rubbish means if anything from 1-10% of a load is incorrect, it goes straight to landfill. The cost of sorting it is just not financially viable.
But what’s the impact of this?
You will be very surprised by how much packaging you now need to put in the regular bin, rather than the recycling bin. This is why the recommended practice of the three Rs are in the order: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.
Materials degrade when recycled. For example, a birthday card may become a cereal box. This may then become a tissue, so in stages 1 and 2 it may be recyclable. However, by stage 3 it probably isn’t. This is why we need to follow the symbols on the packaging.
Our best practice is buying consumables and cleaning materials in commercial sizes from suppliers. Crucially we seek those who use recyclable packaging. For example, we use Delphis Eco for our cleaning products (The Royal warrant for environmentally friendly cleaning products). This is because the containers are 5ltr in size so we Reduce the packaging. The product is also a concentrate, so we can blend our cleaning materials on-site and Reuse our spray pumps. All of the packagings is then Recycled.
If you have more recycling top tips or intel, we want to hear from you! Get in touch>>
