Separate garbage collection: how to properly sort waste
This article was kindly prepared for Minminds by my good friend Sasha Matveyecheva . Her vocation is to open Odessa to people in all its glory, conducting fascinating excursions around the city. In addition, Sasha cares about nature and loves what surrounds her. She started sorting trash at home two years ago and she has a lot to tell.
So, you are on the path of rational consumption and concern for our planet. Thought about the problems of recycling and want to make a contribution. In this article, you will learn what a separate garbage collection is and how to organize the sorting at home with examples from personal experience.
Recycled
Most waste is not rubbish, but recyclable material that can be recycled. First, let's figure out what is recyclable, and what recycling.
You can recycle plastic, paper, metal, glass, even car tires! They make artificial turf, for example. This is what garbage processing plants do.
You need to dispose of hazardous waste that cannot be buried in landfills. This category includes household and office equipment, fluorescent lamps, mercury thermometers, expired drugs, medical waste and electronics: smartphones, flash drives, headphones, batteries, wires. This waste contains heavy metals that poison the soil and water. And then come back to us through food. Dispose of special certified companies that do it safely.
Where to begin?
Having conceived a separate collection of garbage at home you will encounter several questions.
How to organize the space for sorting?
It seems that if you collect waste for recycling, they will be filled up with the whole apartment! In fact, everything is not scary. I think everyone has a free corner in the kitchen, on the balcony or in the pantry. Your main ally is compactness! You can take one box and put all recyclable waste into it, and sort them by type immediately before delivery to the collection point for recyclables. You can have a separate bin, for example, only for dry waste. Waste paper and tetra pack when folded take up very little space, and aluminum cans are flattened successfully. In addition, there are special sorting containers for sale. Find these can be at IKEA and Jysk.
IKEA SORTERA
Containers IKEA SORTERA
And here is a video on how Alice, the author of the blog Minminds (BEFORE and AFTER) organized her home sorting:
What exactly to sort?
Glass. The coolest material for recycling. It can be recycled an infinite number of times. That is, from the old can or bottle, you get a new one without losing quality. It turns out that glass is the only material with a complete recycling cycle.
Waste paper. Paper can survive four to five cycles. After it becomes unusable. Important! Checks are not recycled . Moreover, it is better not to touch them at all, as checks are dangerous for health. In terminals and cash registers use a special thermal paper. It darkens when heated. The text on such paper is burned, not printed by paint. The composition of thermal paper includes bisphenol-A, which becomes toxic when heated. Bisphenol-A enters the body through the skin and can cause serious diseases. Try not to take checks, do not touch them, do not carry them in your pockets and purses. If there is a need for long-term storage, keep the checks in a separate file.
Tetra Pak and Pure Pak are made of cardboard, aluminum and polyethylene. There is a special technology for their processing. Therefore, we collect them separately from the cardboard and plastic.
Metal. These can be aluminum cans, cans and lids. Foil from yoghurt and sour cream also goes for processing.
Plastic. Not all types of plastic can be recycled. To understand what kind of in front of you - look at the label. Look for a triangle with a number or letters inside.
Types of plastic
Types of plastic
The most popular type of plastic is PET (or PETE ) bottle, labeling 1, polyethylene terephthalate. It is well suited for the packaging of cold drinks, yogurt. Pet should not be heated and should not be reused, as it can release phthalates that are harmful to the human body. Recycled .
Marking 2 - HDPE or PEHT is dense polyethylene. From it make packages, containers for cosmetics, food containers. Relatively safe. Recycled .
Marking 3 or PVC . Famous PVC. It is used for technical purposes: in the manufacture of pipes, windows, laminate, tanks for technical liquids. Phthalates, vinyl chloride, may contain impurities of heavy metals. Contraindicated for food packaging. Do not accept for recycling .
Marking 4 is thin LDPE or PEBD polyethylene . From it make a variety of bags, bags and bag. Recyclable and recyclable .
Marking 5 or PP - polypropylene. Safe plastic look, quite tight. Used in the manufacture of toys, containers, household items. Recycled .
Marking 6 or PS means polystyrene. It made disposable dishes, foam trays for meat, yogurt cups, lids for cups for drinks. This type of plastic is dangerous to humans, and when reused, it releases a toxic substance, styrene. At what at any temperature! Technically, polystyrene processing is possible, but in Ukraine it is almost never taken . It is better to try to reduce contact with such plastic to a minimum, and ideally abandon it altogether.
Marking 7 or Other is polyamide, polycarbonate and other types of plastic that have not received their own number. Do not go for recycling.
Not so long ago there was an excellent mobile app Sortui . It is available for iOS and Android and helps to understand the variety of materials and the intricacies of sorting.
In what form is all this stored?
Here will help the basic rules of sorting: wash / dry / reduce the volume. For recycling take pure recyclables. And it is in our interest to keep the waste clean, otherwise an unpleasant amber in the apartment is provided. Plastic needs to be rinsed, allowed to dry out and thoroughly crumpled so that it takes up minimum space. Bottle caps can be assembled separately. They are made from more valuable plastic than bottles. Of them you can do for example raw materials for 3D models.
Tetra Pak (packaging from juices, cream) and Pure Pak (kefir, milk) should be washed, straightening the corners of the pack. Notching packaging is not recommended. Further, as with plastic - dry and flatten. Cardboard and paper fold the easiest. Cardboard packaging stained with grease or food residue is not recycled. Being accustomed, you will spend half a minute on all the manipulations. This is a matter of habit.
What types of waste are not recycled?
Do NOT accept for recycling: any plastic without marking, egg trays, disposable dishes and appliances, wooden sushi sticks, dry and wet napkins, plastic foil (chips packaging, mirrored inside), tubes, candy wrappers from candy, glossy cardboard packaging with a thin layer of plastic on top (you can check tearing cardboard), disposable cups. Details on all types of waste that are not recycled, you can find in this material .
On disposable cups worth talking separately. Takeaway coffee cups are only disguised as paper ones, and inside they have a plastic layer. Without it, the glass would have leaked very quickly. In theory, they can be recycled using a special technology of separation of these two materials. But in fact, doing this is expensive and not profitable. First of all, due to the purpose of these cups - to drink coffee on the go. After that, they are simply thrown away, instead of being carried home, washed, dried and folded. Therefore, 90% of such pseudo-paper glasses fall into a landfill and poison the land. This is indestructible garbage, it is better to switch to reusable beverage containers, such as bamboo to go glasses or stylish tumblers.
Glass of ecoffe cup
Where to take the sorted waste?
Now the environmental movement is gaining momentum, and in cities there are more and more opportunities for sorting. Of course, containers for separate collection of garbage are rare, but here are a few options where you can return recyclable waste.
Sort stations. For example, “Ukraine without a certificate” in Kiev. At such stations you need to come alone. And already in place to sort waste by type. At the stations, there are always employees or volunteers who will be happy to help figure out what's what.
Ukraine without smіttya
Organizations that accept recyclables. This may be private production, which needs, for example, plastic. They can call and find out the conditions. Perhaps they themselves organize the export or they have stationary points of reception.
In many cities, green movement activists organize eco-routes. The bottom line is that the minibus passes through the city, making short stops, and collects recyclables from everyone. You can find out about them in Facebook theme groups. There you can see the schedule and find out all the details.
Now more and more near the trash cans there are nets only for plastic, and sometimes for glass. They are served by waste recycling companies. If you had such a nearby, be sure to use! It is very convenient because plastic and glass occupy the most space and accumulate most quickly.
If it is not possible to transport the recycled materials to remote points of reception, you can put it next to the trash can in separate transparent bags. So come with glass and paper. In every city there is a reception of glass containers, broken glass and waste paper, just as there are people everywhere for whom recycling is a way to make a little bit. You have recycled materials for recycling, they have the opportunity to deliver it to the point of reception, it is win-win
And what to do with organic?
How to deal with organic waste? The most eco-friendly way is to compost! Compost is a good fertilizer that is useful in the garden, and in the country, and indoor plants will also like it. It is obtained by the processing of organic materials by microorganisms. There are several ways to organize composting in an apartment. Each of them has its advantages.
Electric kitchen composter. It is compact, decent looks and does everything himself. This composter runs on the network, and all processes in it are automated. It produces compost without an unpleasant smell, so they can fertilize house flowers. Minus one - the high price.
Electric Kitchen Composter
“Bokashi”. It is a mixture of effective microorganisms (EM) that ferment organics. Fill the special composting bucket with organic garbage and regularly add bacteria. They can be in a liquid mixture or in granules. This compost is not used for indoor plants because of the strong smell. It can be taken to the country or to the park.
Vermicomposting This compost production with the help of worms that live in special boxes in the ground. This is a very valuable fertilizer. But this is the most troublesome way, because worms need care. They are sensitive to moisture and acidity of the soil and not all organics to their taste.
Chopper. If you do not yet feel inspired to do composting, there is another way to dispose of organic matter in apartment conditions - install a food waste chopper. It is built into the sink in the kitchen instead of the usual siphon and grinds food residue. This is a very popular practice in America, which is gradually becoming the norm in our country.
Personal experience
I began to sort the house waste about two years ago. The main advice that I want to share - do what is not difficult for you. Changes in the daily routine are easier to tolerate in small portions. All the same, the formation of a new habit is a big job. I was greatly helped by the realization that any action matters, even the smallest. And it is better to do at least something, even at first glance unimportant , than not doing anything at all.
My first step was sorting plastic bottles. I just started putting them apart. I did not have an understanding of what exactly I would do with them further, the main thing is not to throw them into the general heap. For eight months I collected the bottles in my balcony and still could not take them to recycling. Reception points just googled, but they were all far on the outskirts, and I waited for the right moment for export. And waited for the eco-route. I wrote to the organizers with a request to make a stop somewhere in my area. And as a result, the route, to my great joy, passes right in front of my house. For the first time I brought three 160-liter bags of bottles (!), If you put them one on top of another, you got a mountain with my height.
Sasha and bottles
Eco-route prompted me to delve into the sorting more seriously. Gradually, I added new elements to this puzzle: I began to pay attention to the labeling of plastic, I got used to washing tetra packs, folding cardboard packaging from products compactly. At first my husband was skeptical of my eco-initiatives, but then he got used to new concepts and now also postpones recyclable waste separately. Apparently he is tired of watching me take another box out of the bin and read “you are, it's recyclable / you need to save the planet / plastic does not decompose / the future is in our hands” With each time it becomes easier to sort, and You start to do it on the machine. What used to seem troublesome, for example, to wash-dry a jar of sour cream or a bottle of kefir, now does not cause even a minute thought. Today, recycling in my home looks like this:
In the kitchen I have a separate trash bin only for plastic. I throw it in special grids serviced by a recycling company. True, in my area they are not, so I take away, on occasion, with another. Lids collect trite in the package. I tried to put it in a vase, but I have two funny cats who are interested in pulling them out and driving them all over the apartment.
For the rest, allocated a place in the pantry. It is convenient for me to immediately sort the waste. Therefore, I have a package with waste paper, a package with tetra packs, a package with packages (I don’t seem to take them anywhere, but they still accumulate) with a bucket with aluminum cans. Glass stand immediately, put next to the trash cans.
I am not yet ready to compost organic matter, but I’m quite likely to come to this. To change you need to move in a comfortable rhythm. A year and a half ago it was strange for me to wash the foil from yogurt and put it in a special place, but now my hand does not rise to throw it in the garbage :)
Eco-route passes with us about once a month. During this time, I manage to collect quite a lot of waste for recycling. Now I try to approach purchases more consciously. This allows you not to buy products in non-recyclable packaging, and produce less garbage in general. I am still far from a full Zero Waste , but I am moving in this direction .
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