Do you want to be a green homeowner? If yes, you need to start recycling these items when you no longer use them!
Waste. People produce more and more of it year by year when, in fact, we need to be producing less to protect our planet.
Data shows that the average household in the UK produces more than a tonne of waste annually. What’s more, official data shows that in the UK waste generation was about 36.1 million tonnes in 2017 and about 37.2 million tonnes in 2018.
Now, while over the last two decades, the household waste recycling rate in the UK has had a significant increase from about 11.2 % to nearly 50%, the country still falls short of the EU target which asks for recycling a minimum of 50% of its household waste. This calls for a change, starting with each of us’ waste generation and recycling habits.
You’re probably already familiar with the basics of recycling, and maybe even spend some time sorting your paper and plastic waste from your trash. Yet, there are plenty of other household items that you may not even realize are recyclable. If you want to do something about the millions of tons of trash that go into the landfills each year, start by recycling your own waste more.
Here are five household items you probably didn’t realize that you can and should recycle:
1. Carpet
Are you planning to get a new carpet for your home? But what are you planning to do with your old one? The answer is: don’t simply throw it away!
Instead of simply disposing of your old carpet, you can find a carpet reclamation facility in your area to take it for recycling. Or, if you can’t find such a facility, see if the shop you bought it from offers a take-back scheme.
Yes, post-consumer carpet recycling really exists, and it’s an amazing thing to recycle to prevent them from ending up in the landfill.
2. Old electronics
What do you do with your old laptops, microwaves, TVs or fridges? Do you just dump them at a waste collection facility? Well, you should recycle them!
If these old electronics are still functioning well, but you want to replace them, you can donate them. There are likely lots of people who can use them.
Yet, if they are broken and can’t be fixed, make sure you recycle them.
Now, you can’t just simply toss your old say, TV, in with the rest of your recycling. You need to find a recycling centre in your area that is equipped to deal with electronic materials. Some electronic stores also offer their own recycling programs, and some even offer some discounts to those customers who bring back electronics for recycling.
3. Mattress
You’ve probably didn’t know that you can recycle your old mattress. But, when you buy a new mattress, you can dispose of your old mattress responsibly. And, since it is recommended to replace your mattress every 7 to 10 years, or even earlier if the mattress isn’t comfortable anymore, you’ll likely soon have to replace yours as well.
Mattresses contain many recyclable parts, including springs, wadding, foam, or mattress covering. How to recycle your mattress? You can ask the council to collect it, take it to a recycling centre, or find an old mattress collection service.
4. Coffee pods
When you are enjoying your coffee in the morning, do you ever think about what’s happening to the single-use coffee pods? If not, you should start right now because billions of plastic coffee pods are making their way to landfills every year.
Now, the good news is that these coffee pods can be recycled. Yet, the process is just a little bit more complex as coffee pods include plastic, aluminum, paper, and coffee grounds. So, to properly recycle them, you need to separate these components from one another. Peel back the aluminum top of the coffee pod, and separate it into its components.
Or, if you don’t want to go through all that work, you can simply return the used capsules to the nearest Nespresso shop. If you are using Nespresso coffee pods, know that the company has a take-back scheme put in place and will handle recycling the capsules for you.
5. Ink cartridges
As you may be expecting, ink cartridges contain many toxic materials that shouldn’t go into your regular trash as they can contaminate the rest of the waste and make it unrecyclable. Instead, if you have ink cartridges from your printer, you can simply take them to the nearest office supply store, and they’ll very likely take them and send them to proper recycling centres.
Ref number: THSI-2125
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