Recycling in every room: the kitchen
The kitchen is the place that contributes the most to the landfill and recycling bins. It’s difficult to avoid food packaging.
If you can, shopping at farmers markets or bulk food stores are a great way to buy locally sourced, unpackaged food. However, this isn’t easy for everyone to do every week. (As always, we encourage you to choose what works best for you!)
The kitchen is where recycling lives and thrives.
Your kerbside recycling bin(s) accepts the following items:
Remember, dry and clean. When we say clean, we mean quickly wiped through, not thoroughly hand washed :)
Aluminium foil (rolled into the size of a tennis ball)
Aluminium and steel cans
Glass bottles and jars
Rigid household plastics and their lids e.g. milk bottles, soft drink bottles, washing liquid bottles, yoghurt tubs, etc
Paper and cardboard
Look for the Australian Recycling Label label for the recycling instructions. If in doubt, leave it out!
If the kerbside bin contains a contaminant, the whole contents of the recycling bin will be thrown out. So it’s important to avoid wish-cycling. That is, chucking something in the bin hoping that it will be recycled when it can’t be.
RecycleSmart collects:
Soft Plastics: Bread bags, cereal box liners, frozen food bags, frozen food bags, grocery bags, silver-lined chip bags, snaplock bags, etc
E-waste: Blender, kettle, toaster, small microwave, sandwich press, waffle maker
Textiles: Tea towels
Misfits: Aluminium coffee capsules, household light bulbs, batteries
Sustainable swaps:
Universal cleaner: Just add water! Did you know that you can use the same product to clean glass, steel and other surfaces?
Compostable scrubbers: Throw them in the compost bin when you’re done!
Reusable dishcloths: Replaces 17 rolls of paper towel and it’s compostable!
Dishwashing tablets: with compostable packaging
Sodastream: Replaces 550 plastic bottles a year on average!
Cover leftovers with a plate instead of plastic wrap
If you’d like to cut down on your packaging even more, you could try making your own products! (We recognise this is next level!) Check out these 7 simple cleaning recipes.
Recycling tip: Create a separate bin/bag for your soft plastics recycling (ready for your next RecycleSmart pickup!)
