Top recycling tips and how to recycle around the house

Brisbane City Council is committed to making Brisbane cleaner and greener by reducing waste to landfill. Recycling is a simple way to reduce landfill waste and keep materials in circulation for longer. Use these top 10 recycling tips and learn about more items you can recycle.

1. What can I recycle? 

You can make recycling easy by remembering which items you can put in your household recycling bin. This includes paper, cardboard, firm flexible plastic, metal (aluminium and steel) and glass. You can safely dispose of empty aerosol cans and containers that previously held household chemicals in your recycling bin.

Not all glass is recyclable and must go in different bins. Examples of glass to put in the reycling bin include glass jars and bottles, such as beverage bottles, jam jars and sauce bottles. 

Drinking glasses, ceramics and heat-proof glass (e.g. Pyrex) melt at different temperatures to other glass. These types of glass go in the general waste bin.

Discover other items you can throw in your recycling bin.

2. Look for the new Australasian Recycling Labels.

This is a standardised system that provides easy to understand recycling information. Check an item for the Australasian Recycling Label to identify if you can recycle it.

Some items might lack a label, but you can likely recycle those made from paper, cardboard, glass, metal, or plastic.

3. How do I recycle?

You don't need to rinse your containers before placing them in your recycling bin. Although rinsing reduces bin odours, unrinsed containers do not ruin a whole load of recycling.

Leave items loose when throwing them into your recycling bin and avoid using plastic bags.

The recycling facility will not open plastic bags for safety reasons and will send them to the landfill. 

Understand when to remove the lids from containers and bottles. Only remove the lids from containers and bottles when returning these items to a container refund point. Otherwise, leave lids on when placing items in your recycling bin at home.

4. Use different bins to collect more.

Make collecting recyclables at home easier by placing recycling bins in your kitchen, bathroom, and laundry. Sorting your recyclables at the point of disposal will help you recycle more.

Trust your decisions on what items you recycle, and trust Council's state-of-the-art recycling system. Brisbane residents are great recyclers, with only 10% of non-recyclables incorrectly placed in recycling bins.

Make the effort to recycle one or two extra items each week, such as junk mail or old air fresheners. Every item you recycle helps conserve precious resources and prevents materials going to landfill. 

More information

Learn more about what you can and can't put in your general waste, recycling, and green bin.

The information included in this blog is also available on Council's free Brisbane bin and recycling app. This app can help you:

• know what to put in your recycling bin
  
• remember your bin collection days
• discover more about our waste and resource recovery centres and services.