Recycle GB
What More Can I Do? > Why Wash and Squash
Why Wash and Squash?
Well, it makes recycling better if you do.…
Washing and squashing is an important part of recycling your cans,
glass and plastics.
It should only take you a minute – and here are some tips to makeit faster, and even good fun!
Why Wash? Washing your cans gets rid of any unwanted liquids or solids – basically, the stuff that was in them.
This helps make the recycling process as efficient as possible, and you’ll be doing yourself a favour too – washing the cans, plastics and glass gets rid of any unpleasant smells, and will help keep your recycling box clean.
How to Wash An easy way to wash your plastics, cans and glass is to use the last of the washing up water. If it’s not too soapy, you can even use the waste water afterwards on your flowerbeds or veg patch.
Why Wash? Squashed cans and plastic bottles take up so much less room in your recycling box, as well as in the collection vehicle.
Plastic recycling containers at recycling centres are sometimes full to overflowing before they’re collected. But if everyone squashed their plastic bottles and cartons first, there would be room in the container – and more plastics could be collected each time.
It’s the same with squashed cans. For example, a standard collection sack (twice the size of a black bin liner) can hold around 2kg of uncrushed cans. In terms of the number of cans, 1kg equals approximately 65 cans.
But if we crushed the cans, we could fit more than 250 extra cans in the same collection sack, more than twice the amount of crushed cans – as much as 4-5kg!
Wash & Squash - Not always... While squashing your recyclables means you can fit more in the box or bring bank, some local authorities need you to keep your bottles and cans intact.
This is because some Materials Recovery Facilities use an alternative technology which automatically sort and separate the different recyclable materials by identifying their shapes. If the plastic bottles and cans have been squashed, the sorting machines can get confused and put them with the paper and other flat items.This contamination prevents the facility from recycling the materials as effectively and reduces the amount of useful, high quality recycled material being produced.
So, check the advice given by your local authority to make sure as many plastic bottles and cans as possible can be transformed into new and exciting items.
How to Squash Squashing plastic bottles is easy – just squeeze the air out of them (you can stand on them to do this!!). Follow your local authority instructions on whether to re-seal them with the cap.
To squash a can you need to weaken its sidewalls. So put the can on its side and tread the sidewall first, before flattening the ends in – or taking it outside and stamping on it!
It’s even quicker to use a special can crusher tool, and it’s especially useful if you often have lots of cans to recycle. You can see an example of a can crusher here:
