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How to Recycle Plastic Lids and Caps

How to Recycle Plastic Lids and Caps

Updated 5 March 2018 04:32 PM
Plastic bottles like milk or juice bottle are a different type of plastic to their screw on plastic caps. Plastic caps and lids are PP 5 type plastics and bottles are generally PETE 1.

Caps are generally recyclable, but councils vary on how they ask you to manage them in your recycle bin.  Bear in mind that much of the initial bulk recycling is done manually – physically separated by real people.

Some councils simply don’t recycle plastic caps and lids, while others are fine for you to leave them on the bottle and others prefer them to be separated from the plastic bottle and placed separately in the council recycling bin. Some councils suggest you  collect your caps and place them in a clear plastic container like a juice bottle. Once the bottle is full of caps and lids, screw or press the container lid on and place the complete set into your recycle bin. This will ensure your container of lids is sorted as mixed plastic.
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Science Notes
As plastic caps and lids are generally a different type of plastic, they are treated differently at the recycle station where the plastic  bottle  is compressed and the cap set aside for separate collection.

Plastic caps and lids are also small and are easily lost in the recycling process and potentially get caught in machinery. Plastic is also crushed in the recycling process, this is made difficult with the plastic caps and lids still on the bottle.

Mixing of different plastic types results in contamination and a reduction in the value of the material, while using extra resources to separate them before processing. Lids and caps can jam processing equipment.

Related Tip
If you are buying something like a soft drink where you have a choice between a plastic bottle or an aluminium can, choose the can.  While it doesn’t use more resources, it takes more energy to recycle a plastic bottle than make a new one. On the other hand, cans are easily recycled and use 95% less energy than making them from scratch. 

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