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Household recycling is a fairly straightforward concept, and yet, very few people make it a habit in their households.

If you haven't already started household recycling, that’s okay. 

The folks at ByPurify have the know-how to help you start your journey.

On that note, let’s dive right in and discover a few interesting household recycling facts...

Understanding Household Recycling

Recycling is the process of collecting and reusing things that would otherwise be tossed in the trash and turning them into new creations. 

It can also benefit your community and your environment. 

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Recycling is one of the best ways to make a positive impact on us and the world I live in. 

Through recycling, a large portion of my waste can be broken down into its original form and used to create new things. 

5 Benefits of Household Recycling

The 5 benefits of household recycling include protecting natural resources and saving energy.

I need to improve my recycling habits at home, at school, and at work as it's critical to the future health of my planet. 

Here are more details about the 5 benefits:

Protecting Natural Resources

The world's natural resources are limited and some are rare. 

Recycling paper and cardboard saves trees and forests. 

Yes, you can plant new trees, but you cannot replace a virgin forest or a once-grown forest once they are gone. 

What does this mean?

Recycling plastic means creating new, less plastic, which is a good thing, especially since it's often a fossil fuel.

Metal recycling means that there’s less need to source and produce new metals that are dangerous, expensive, and perishable. 

Recycling glass reduces the need for new resources such as sand. 

It seems hard to believe, but the supply of certain types of sand is starting to decrease around the world.

Protecting the Environment & Wildlife

Recycling reduces the need to grow, harvest, or remove new materials from the earth.

This, in turn, reduces disruption and damage to the natural world: less-cut forests, diverted rivers, injured or displaced wildlife, and less water, soil, and air pollution. 

And of course, if my plastic waste isn’t recycled safely, it can be blown or washed into rivers and oceans for hundreds of kilometers or thousands of kilometers, and pollute the coast and waterways, and become a problem for everyone.

Reduce Demand For Resources

Increasing global demand for new products has resulted in many of the poorest and most vulnerable people being driven from their homes or exploited. 

Businesses looking for cheap wood force people out of the forest, and industrial waste can damage or pollute rivers. 

It’s better to recycle existing products than to harm someone else's country or land in search of something new.

Saving Energy

Making products from recycled materials requires less energy than making them from new materials. Sometimes, there's a big difference in power. 

Making new aluminum from old products uses 95% less energy than making it from scratch¹.

For steel, this is an energy saving of around 70%. 

Making paper from recycled paper uses 40% less energy than making it from virgin wood fiber.

The amount of energy saved by recycling glass bottles can power an old 100-watt light bulb for 4 hours and a new, more efficient light bulb to last longer². 

Reducing Climate-Changing Carbon Emissions

Recycling releases less carbon into the air because it takes less energy to find and process new materials. 

It also keeps methane-producing waste out of landfills.

Reducing carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere is essential to halting climate change. 

What’s the Real Problem With Household Recycling? 

The real problem with household recycling is that many recyclables become contaminated when items are placed in the wrong bin or when dirty food bags enter the recycling bin. 

Contamination can prevent the recycling of large quantities of material.

In addition, many collected items, such as straws and plastic bags, kitchen utensils, yogurt, and take-out containers, can’t be recycled. 

Here’s what happens instead:

They are often burned, thrown into landfills, or thrown into the ocean. 

Although fire is sometimes used to produce energy, energy-wasting plants have been associated with sewage disposal in the past. 

Landfills release carbon dioxide, methane, volatile organic compounds, and other dangerous pollutants into the atmosphere³.

General Household Recycling Facts

Undoubtedly, recycling is the first thing that society can do to improve everything at the same time: the environment, the economy, sustainable production, and removing waste from the ocean⁴.

Here are a few supporting facts:

• Recycling is in trouble in the United States because of public confusion about recycling. The current recycling rate in the United States is 21.4%.
• When the recycling rate in the United States reaches 75%, it’ll be the environmental and CO2 equivalent of removing 55 million cars from American roads every year.
• When the recycling rate in the United States reaches 75%, it’ll create 1.5 million new jobs in the United States.

Cardboard Household Recycling Facts

When it comes to recycling cardboard, there’s more to it than meets the eye.

Here’s why:

• Recycling cardboard consumes only 75% of the energy required to manufacture new cardboard.
• Recycling one ton of cardboard saves 46 gallons of fuel. 
• More than 90% of all products shipped in the United States are shipped in cardboard boxes, which total more than 400 billion square feet of cardboard.
• Almost 80% of retailers and grocers recycle their cardboard. 

Plastic Household Recycling Facts

Recycling plastic has been a hot topic as of late.

Let’s look at why:

• A total of 5 recycled plastic (PET) bottles provide enough fiber to create one square foot of carpet or enough fiber to fill a ski jacket.
• Americans dispose of 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour. 
• Recycling one ton of plastic bottles saves the energy consumption of a 2-person family for a year.

Glass Household Recycling Facts

Glass recycling is something that most people are familiar with.

Here are a few things that you may not know:

• Glass can be recycled and remade an infinite number of times and it never wears out. 
• Making glass from recycled materials reduces associated water pollution by 50%.
• Recycling one glass jar saves enough electricity to power an 11-watt CFL bulb for 20 hours. 
• More than 28.9 billion glass bottles end up in landfills every year, filling 2 Empire State buildings every 3 weeks.

What Can’t Be Recycled in the Household?

As much as I would love to recycle everything, there are a few things that can’t be recycled in a household, including receipts, plastic bags, and crisp packaging. .

Let’s take a closer look:

Disposable Coffee Cups

Disposable coffee cups can be made of paper, but they are usually made of a thin polyethylene film, which makes the cups strong, durable, and expensive. 

You can recycle the lid (check the plastic number against local recycling regulations), but the cup can be harmful to other recyclables.

Receipts

Paper receipts are coated with a substance called Bisphenol A (BPA) or Bisphenol S (BPS) which gives them a shiny texture. 

This substance can be harmful if left in the environment or used in large quantities.

Dirty Pizza Boxes & Polystyrene Containers

Oil often seeps into the cardboard, making dirty pizza boxes worthless to recycle. 

Since Styrofoam (or Styrofoam) tends to break down into small pieces of plastic, it isn’t suitable for recycling and must first be placed in a recycling machine. 

However, due to its high cost and the complicated process of manufacturing it, polystyrene is rarely recycled. 

Crisp Packaging

Packets of crisps can’t be recycled because they contain a lot of different plastic called metalized plastic film, and have grease and food residue stuck to them. 

Cotton Pads/Balls

100% cotton pads can be composted, but if used with a chemical makeup remover, this will pollute the compost. 

Cotton wool is also combined with other synthetic materials, such as polyester, which will make it harder to break down.

Sticky Notes

The glue on sticky notes is difficult to remove, so many recycling centers refuse to accept sticky notes as waste paper. 

The glue often separates when it’s put into the pulper, which can lead to distortion of the final product, and vice versa. 

Plastic Bags

People often have the habit of collecting their paper, glass, and plastic waste in plastic bags (to avoid using plastic additives), but they don't know that the plastic bag shouldn’t be recycled.

Plastic bags are known to clog machines, so they shouldn’t be sent for recycling. 

They also take hundreds of years to break down, often becoming microplastics in my oceans, so their use should be avoided at all costs. 

Common Questions

In Conclusion

Recycling at home is a green practice that should be started today, as it allows you to use old products and turn them into useful items, use these household recycling facts to guide you. 

Recycling at home isn’t as difficult as you might think. 

All it takes is motivation to make it happen, and soon you'll be doing a whole lot of good.