Some kinds of plastic can be recycled. It can be turned into material to make plastic parts for cars. Plastic bottles for fizzy drinks are often made of recyclable plastic. These bottles can also be reused, by being made into useful items.
What can I do with paper?
Most paper can be recycled, from newspapers and telephone directories to sweet wrappers and envelopes. It is made into new paper and cardboard.
Is it true?
Glass can be recycled over and over again.
YES. You just keep on crushing it, melting it and making it into new bottles and jars.
What can I do with aluminium cans?
.Cans and tins that hold fizzy drinks and even sardines are often made from a lightweight metal called aluminium. Look for the ALU symbol on them. They can be melted down and made into new cans.
Amazing!
In Britain we throw away around 11 million aluminium cans every day. If you think that’s a lot, the USA throws out 200 million!
What can I do with steel cans?
Most food cans are made from steel, A magnet wilt stick to a steel can. If it doesn’t, the can is prohably made from aluminium. Wash the cans out and take them to a can: bank. Steel is the world’s most recycled material.
Is it true?
Christmas trees can be recycled.
YES. Real Christmas trees (not plastic ones!) can be cut into tiny pieces, called chippings, which are used by gardeners.
What can I do with old clothes?
Give old clothes to charity shops. They are sorted out and many are sold as second-hand clothes. Some old clothes are sent abroad. Tatty clothes are sent to textile mills where they are ripped to pieces an used to make felt.
What can I do with kitchen and
garden waste?
Vegetable peelings, tea leaves and grass cuttings are ‘green’ waste. If you pile them into a heap in the garden, they will rot down to make compost.
Even some kinds of paper can be turned into compost.
Why is compost good for the environment?
Compost is food for the soil. It contains nutrients (foods) which keep soil healthy. Using home-made compost means less peat compost is dug up from natural places, and animals’ homes are saved.
Are there other ways of recycling
green waste?
You don’t need a garden to recycle green waste! You can make small amounts of compost and plant food inside a wormery – a container where a colony of worms live. Worm bins can be kept inside or outside.
Is it true?
Leaves make good compost.
YES. Leaves rot down slowly to become leaf mould. Put them in a black bag or an open-topped wire cage. After two years you’ll have compost.
Amazing!
Green waste in a rubbish tip makes dangerous methane gas, and liquid that
can pollute water and kill wildlife. It’s safer to make it into compost.
