J&B Recycling Knowledge

We all make New Year’s resolutions, whether that may be to quit smoking, live a healthier lifestyle or read more books. But how about making a resolution to be kinder to our planet? We can all make small changes to our lives that would make a big difference to our environment. Here at J&B Recycling, we have come up with some simple tips to help you recycle that will make your 2022 that little bit greener.

Some New Year’s Resolutions require time or financial commitment. Finding more time to exercise or budgeting for healthier and more expensive food may not be do-able for some. Luckily, choosing recycling as a resolution does not require a great deal of time or money. As well as this, not only are you decreasing your own carbon footprint, you are also helping others by protecting the environment. Recycling your common household materials such as plastic, paper and glass bottles and jars, is an incredibly easy way to do so.

Great efforts have already been made in many households to implement recycling into our daily lives, but there are always improvements to be made. Here at J&B Recycling, we’ve come up with some handy tips to inspire some new recycling behaviours:

Before placing your empty tins, cans and bottles into your recycling bin, it is very important that they are emptied properly and incredibly helpful if you rinse them out before doing so. This is because remnants of the product it once contained can contaminate the recyclables process and in some cases cause the entire load to be un-recyclable. This could ultimately cause the load going to waste..

When the recycling bin gets full, our recycling efforts can start to deteriorate and we often resort to tossing our recyclables into our general waste bin. Our tip to combat this, is to utilise as much space in your kerbside recycling bin as you can in order to prevent it from filling too fast. This includes, flattening your cardboard packages, plastic bottles and juice cartons in order to ensure more space in your recycling bin. Just remember to remove any other types of material such as polystyrene from the boxes before you flatten them and put the tops back on the bottles after squashing them.

Some items are often mistaken as recyclable when they’re not – and vice versa. We encourage people to always check the packaging and labels on their items to ensure that it can definitely be recycled in your kerbside recycling bin. In some cases, your item may be recycled but it must be taken to be recycled by a specialist scheme, this will be shown on the label!

Most batteries can be recycled, however they should not be recycled in your kerbside recycling or even general waste bins. Placing batteries into your kerbside bins can cause fires which puts the loads at risk but most importantly, the workers who are transporting and sorting the waste or recyclables . Many battery recycling points can be found in local supermarkets.

Why not keep a recycling point upstairs or closer to your bedroom and bathroom? We can all be a little lazy at times. To help you recycle on even your laziest days, keep a recycling bin or bag upstairs as well as a general waste bin. This way, you can put empty toilet roll holders, shampoo/ shower gel bottles or cardboard etc, into the recycling bin instead of tossing them into the general waste bin!

At J&B Recycling, we are a renowned recycling and waste management company in the north east and we’re serious about recycling and we encourage everyone to make a conscious effort to make recycling a part of your everyday life in 2022. Should your business be in need of waste management, contact us today to see how J&B Recycling can help.

J&B Recycling provide waste management solutions for business across the North of England. Our main Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) is based in Hartlepool and we have a second site in Middlesbrough, making us ideally placed for collections across Teesside (Hartlepool, Stockton, Middlesbrough and Darlington). We also have a site in Washington and we operate established collection routes throughout Durham, Gateshead, Newcastle, Sunderland, North Tyneside and Northumberland. Please don't hesitate to get in touch if we can help with your waste collection.