A new life for plastic waste

Last year, nearly a quarter of a million kilogrammes of plastic waste was collected from our properties. Although the recycling of plastic packaging has increased year by year, a lot of recyclable plastic still ends up in mixed waste.

If your sort your plastic packaging, it can be used to make new plastic products and valuable material is not wasted.

Sorted plastic packaging ends up in a plastics refinery, where the different types of plastic are separated, cleaned and shredded. Recycled plastic granules are used to make cleaning utensils, flower pots, buckets and plastic bags, among other things. What cannot be recycled is burned for energy.

What can be put in the plastic waste bin?

Residential plastic collection is only for plastic packaging, not for plastic products. In the plastic waste bin, you can put empty plastic food packaging, plastic bags and wrappers, plastic packaging for household goods and empty plastic bottles for detergent, shampoo and soap.

Do as follows:

• Put only empty plastic packaging in your property’s plastic waste collection.
• Rinse or wipe empty packages if necessary. The plastic packaging should be clean enough to not cause mould problems or smell bad.
• Remove the caps and lids. This makes the processing easier at the refinery.
• Do not put different types of packaging inside each other.
• You can take the packaging to the collection point in a plastic bag which should not be tied too tightly.

What should not be put in the plastic waste bin?

Put plastic products other than packaging plastics in the mixed waste bin. For example, broken toys and cleaning utensils belong in the mixed waste bin or can be taken to the Sortti stations for plastic collection.

Packaging containing traces of hazardous substances, such as motor oil bottles, should be taken to a hazardous waste collection point.

Plastic or metal

Sometimes it is difficult to tell whether rubbish is plastic or metal. For example, is the lid of a yoghurt pot made of plastic or metal?

Try crumpling and tearing the lid of the yoghurt pot.

• Plastic: If the lid springs back after being crumpled and does not tear easily.
• Metal: If the lid remains crumpled and tears easily.

Sorting problems? HSY’s waste guide can help!

HSY’s waste guide: Type in the name of the rubbish and the guide will tell you what kind of waste it is and where you can take it.

The HSY website also provides more information on the recycling of plastics.