Recycle week: Missed recyclable items in schools

Recycle Week: Missed recyclable items in schools

Recycle Week occurs on the 16th-22nd of October, encouraging everyone to make greener choices and protect the environment through recycling. This year's theme is the Big Recycling Hunt, which focuses on finding the most common missed recyclable items that are thrown into landfills instead.

Your school constantly uses many recyclable items that can often be missed and thrown into landfills. It is vital for SBMs to know these common items that aren’t usually recycled but can be used to help schools strive toward a greener future. To help you make sure no recycling is missed, we have sourced a few commonly missed recyclable items in schools. We also delve into common recycled items that aren’t recyclable so you can avoid incorrectly recycling in your school.

Items that are missed when recycling

Look out for these items in your school and ensure that you and your school make an effort to recycle them.

Bathroom cleaners

All bathroom cleaner bottles can be recycled that you may not even think about. Once bathroom cleaners are used, ensure that the containers are rinsed clean and replace any trigger spray lids before putting them into the correct recycling. Bathroom cleaners usually come in plastic bottles, so recycling them in the correct bin for your local area is vital.

Bleach bottles

A common recyclable item that can often be missed in schools is bleach bottles. It can be difficult to know if bleach bottles can be recycled due to the chemicals within it. However, most bleach bottles are made from plastic so they can go into your plastic recycling. It is important to ensure that the bottles are thoroughly cleaned so no chemicals are left in the container.

Soap bottles

Don’t forget about liquid soap bottles as these can also be recycled. Schools constantly use liquid soap bottles in bathrooms and kitchens where hands need to be thoroughly washed. It can be easy to overlook the fact that the bottles can be recycled, so these soap bottles usually get thrown away in the general rubbish. Due to the containers being made from plastic, they can be put into your plastic recycling bin. However, the pumps must be removed and thrown away in the general rubbish bin as they can’t be recycled. Ensure that all empty soap bottles have been rinsed before recycling.

Tissue boxes

Tissue boxes can be another common item that your school may use regularly but often doesn’t get recycled. This is due to the plastic inserts within the boxes, so they can often be perceived as non-recyclable.  These plastic inserts can be removed so that the cardboard packaging can be flattened and recycled. Ensure that any tissue boxes are disposed of correctly in the cardboard recycling bin, and let your staff know that plastic inserts should be removed. The plastic inserts should be disposed of via the general waste.

To help teachers and staff separate their recycling according to your local area, stock up on multiple different coloured bins to have in the classrooms and high-traffic areas. Set certain colours for each recycling element, for example, blue for cardboard and paper and black for general waste. These bins can then be easily tipped into the correct collection bins without mixing up items.

Aerosol air fresheners

Aerosol air fresheners may be used regularly throughout the school to keep the atmosphere pleasant, especially in areas such as the toilets. The cans that the air freshener comes in are often thrown away in general waste and end up in landfills. But these empty cans can be recycled with other tins and bottles to avoid harming the environment. Due to the material, if these cans are constantly thrown into landfills, they can create huge damage, taking around 200-500 years to decompose.

Empty dishwasher tablets

Another missed recyclable item in schools is dishwasher tablets. Dishwasher tablets are essential with the number of dishes and pots used to create school dinners daily. The packaging for these can be recycled when it is empty, or you can invest in ones that are refillable to be more sustainable.

Envelopes

Envelopes can often be thrown into general waste even though they can be recycled with paper waste.  Envelopes can be overlooked for recycling due to the plastic insert that many have to show addresses. However, this plastic insert can also be recycled with the envelope. Envelopes can be used often by SBMs and it’s vital to start recycling them to help schools be more sustainable.

Items that aren’t recyclable

There are many items that can be mistaken as recyclable but aren’t. SBMs must be aware of these school items to ensure that the school is recycling correctly.

Tissues, napkins, paper towels & toilet paper

These items are used regularly in schools and are usually made from recycled paper materials. Unfortunately, they aren’t recyclable but can often be perceived as recyclable. These can’t be recycled due to the materials they are made from, and every time paper is recycled, the fibres become smaller and smaller. By the time these materials are used for tissue items, they are usually too small to recycle again.

Plus, these usually have fluids, liquids or grease on them once used deeming them non-recyclable. These can be composted though if they are unbleached so consider swapping some of these products with non-bleached alternatives to compost.

Printer paper wrapping

The wrapping to printer paper packs can often be put in the paper recycling bin because the material is paper. But it isn’t actually recyclable due to a layer of plastic or wax that is used to make it durable to hold the ream of paper. However, there are companies that are trying to combat this, which you could switch to, and these will be stated on the packaging. If there is no statement on your school's printer paper packaging that it’s fully recyclable, then the wrapping must go into the general waste.

Receipts

Receipts are often deceiving as they look and feel like paper but aren’t recyclable. For SBMs, receipts are needed to keep track of the schools' finances. After a while, they need to be disposed of as they are no longer needed. Many people shred receipts and dispose them with paper recycling which is fine for online purchases as these are printed onto paper. The problem of recycling receipts comes when they are printed on thermal paper like supermarkets use. Thermal paper includes Bisphenol A (BPA) which can’t be recycled and must go to landfill.

Use these missed recyclable items in schools to help your school be more sustainable and protect the environment. Look out for these items during recycle week and beyond to ensure that you are correctly recycling and that nothing becomes mixed up. Encourage staff and students to get involved with recycling these items by leaving reminders around the school such as posters with the items listed. You could also challenge your school to hunt for these items around the school as a fun activity for everyone to do during recycle week. Offer small prizes to whoever recycles the most.

For more information on recycling and ideas to make the school greener, read our ‘make your school more eco-friendly’ blog.