Why can't I recycle plastic bottle tops?

[mr magnolia]

milk cartons, for instance, have the same recycle logo and materials ID on the cap as on the bottle itself, but all plastic recycling bins seem to say 'no container/bottle caps'

Is there a particular problem with caps? or do they just want to ensure that they have been taken off by someone before the poor sap on the pick line has to do it?

[iakobski]

1. Different materials, harder to sort quickly
2. If you leave them on the bottles don't squash, much more expensive to transport

[mr magnolia]

1. Different materials, harder to sort quickly
2. If you leave them on the bottles don't squash, much more expensive to transport

point 1 doesn't compute - labelling says they are the same, and both recyclable.  aha - different one from another and a bit small to be dealt with at the pick line?
point 2 seems a killer.

I shall assume then that any recyclable tops that I put into the thing will end up as landfill, and simply chuck them away at home.

[Fi]

You can it seems recycle them:

Where Can I Recycle......Plastic Milk Bottle Tops?

[Wobbly John]

Does squashing the lids make it easier to pick them from the sorting line?

Our plastic bottle banks have a notice that says "Remove lids and squash." 

[nuttycyclist]

Our plastic bottle banks have a notice that says "Remove lids and squash." 

Well you wouldn't want to put a full bottle of squash in the recycling would you?  Always drain the bottle first.




IGMC.

[andygates]

Milk bottle tops are recyclable.

Your local recycling services currently choose not to recycle them.

Ask the council why.

[rafletcher]

Milk bottle tops are recyclable.

Your local recycling services currently choose not to recycle them.

Ask the council why.

It'll be the sub-contracted recycling company that doesn't want them. There are a number of oddities in recycling. For instance we CAN put telephone directories in our paper recycling, but but not brown paper or brown envelopes, or gift wrapping. We can however put in white envelopes, including "window" envelopes often prohibited.  Milk bottles are excluded from our glass recycling collection, as is blue glass.

[andygates]

Yes yes but that doesn't make it right. 

[Greenbank]

From: Wandsworth Council - Orange sack scheme - What cannot be recycled from home

"
Why can't I put these items in the orange sack?

Recycling of some items can be difficult for two reasons: physical properties of a material, or it being economically unviable. Recycling rubbish into new products is not possible if a market for that product does not exist. For example, because no manufacturer is using scrap plastic from food trays and yoghurt pots they cannot be recycled at the moment. Recycling can also be a problem if the rubbish item is a mixture of more than one material, for example waxed cartons. As recycling technology improves, it will be possible to recycle more in the future.
"

They may not take things in the weekly collections, but you might be able to save them up and drop them off in batches at the major recycling centres. Our council takes PET and HDPE. If not, save them up until they do start to recycle them.

Also, our local council doesn't collect plastic bags for recycling, but the local Sainsbury's does.

Reminds me, I've got broken monitor, and old toner cartridge, loads of old paint that's been there since we moved in, and a load of dud batteries to take to the tip.

[keepontriking]

Milk bottle tops are recyclable.

Your local recycling services currently choose not to recycle them.

Ask the council why.

My Council said they are too small to be picked up by the sorters.
The advice was to put them inside another plastic container.

[andygates]

Mine reject stuff inside other stuff as they can't verify that it isn't mixed.

[Valiant]

I like our new bins at work, practically anything bar food stuffs as long as it's washed out.

[campagman]

  Milk bottles are excluded from our glass recycling collection, as is blue glass.
[/quote]

Surely glass milk bottles are recycled by giving them back to the milkman?

[Greenbank]

Surely glass milk bottles are recycled by giving them back to the milkman?

Some people have a bizarre notion that recycling is "better" than simply reusing said item.

We have cardboard sleeves for coffee cups from our coffee thing at work. I use about one or two a week as long as I remember to take it with me when I go for a coffee. Others thing nothing of getting a brand new sleeve each time but think nothing of it because they pop it into the recycling bin once they're done with it.

[rafletcher]

  Milk bottles are excluded from our glass recycling collection, as is blue glass.

Surely glass milk bottles are recycled by giving them back to the milkman?
[/quote]

You would have thought so - but that assumes everyone realises that milk bottles are re-used.  Having said that the level of doorstep delivery in our area is minimal, and usually to middle-class households that should know better. 

[citoyen]

milk cartons, for instance, have the same recycle logo and materials ID on the cap as on the bottle itself, but all plastic recycling bins seem to say 'no container/bottle caps'

Is there a particular problem with caps? or do they just want to ensure that they have been taken off by someone before the poor sap on the pick line has to do it?

I can't remember where I heard this, but this is the reason I've been told, which is different to all the other reasons given so far...

Bottle caps generally are made of a different type of plastic to the bottle itself - this is especially likely in the case of containers designed for high pressure, eg fizzy drinks bottles. Non-pressurised containers, such as your milk bottle, may have a lid made of the same recyclable material but I don't think that's common. The reason for the blanket ban on all bottle lids is to make it easier for us to know what to put in and what not to put in.

d.

[Manotea]

There's a village in Japan with 50 or so categories of recycling waste (apparently). One of them is plastic bottle tops.

It must be true. I saw it on TV.

[gonzo]

I was once told by a DT teacher that there is a company whose sole purpose is to recycle just coke bottle tops.

[The Seldom Killer]

As I understand it, although the materials of bottle tops are often the same as the bottles (companies are encouraged to adopt this practice), it is a matter of recycling processes and material densities/thickness. Because the tops them selves are often thicker and more rigid than the bottles they are attached to, they react differently in the recycling process making it less successful. Until all recycling plants adopt new practices that can cope with the tops councils will reject bottles for recycling if they are still attached. This is because if batches of bottles have to be rejected because too many of them have tops then the council cannot claim these whole tonnage as part of their recycling targets and may lose out of central government funding.

[border-rider]

I just checked our milk bottles.

The bottles are labelled as type 2, and the recycling site accepts types 1 and 2.  The caps are type 4 though.

My understanding is that even where multiple types are accepted, the sorting is often dine by infrared absorption, and if the different types are stuck together one of them has to be wrong...