The surprising bad habit that’s ruining your recycling

Whether it’s eating a burger after the gym or buying a coffee keep cup you never use, there’s nothing worse than undoing your good work by falling off the wagon and slipping back into a bad habit.

And when it comes to recycling, Aussies are making a surprising mistake that is undoing their efforts to be green. Thing is, most of us don’t even know we’re doing it, meaning everything we thought we knew about recycling is basically a lie.

We’ve just wrapped Recycling Week in Australia, so we’re going full Leonardo DiCaprio with our efforts to save the planet and clearing up a few things about recycling …

So, where are we going wrong?

A whopping 20 per cent of Australians are putting their recycling items in plastic bags and throwing them straight into the yellow recycling bin.

Plastic bags cause major problems in the complex multiverse of waste management. Contaminating your yellow bin with plastic bags means valuable recyclable items are sent to landfill, hurting the environment.

Why you may ask?

When our recycled rubbish hits the dump, the first round of sorting is done by hand. Yes, that’s right, by real humans. Workers at waste stations are going through tons of recycling everyday and do not have time to check what is inside every single plastic bag.

Of course, everyone makes mistakes and plastic bags full of dirty nappies, medical equipment and rotten food might make it into the recycling bins, making it dangerous for the sorters to open the bags. Not to mention time consuming. So, if a plastic bag comes through the stream, it will be removed and thrown into landfill meaning some valuable recyclable stuff will be wasted in landfill. Dang, right?

Australia’s recycling system is far from simple but we know we want to help, with 92 per cent of us saying it doesn’t take a lot of effort to recycle.

So, how can we kick this bad habit of removing recycling materials from plastic bags?

Start by storing milk cartons, jars and other recyclables in a box that can act as the vessel to cart the items to the rubbish on bin day.

What do we do with soft plastics if we’re keeping them out of our recycling? Biscuit packets, rice bags, lolly plastic, fresh fruit and vegie bags and frozen food bags, magazine and newspaper wrapping, clean plastic film and plastic bags can now be recycled at some supermarkets by the folks at REDcycle.

These grisly facts are a lot to take in and it’s not just on Recycling Week that we need to make an effort. If you see your roomies or a family member putting plastic bags into the recycling bin, shout it from the rooftop, sister.

Spread the word that mixing plastic bags in the recycling will mean the contents of your yellow bin will go to landfill. Let’s kick this bad habit together.