Plastic Free July

[BH-bubhub]

Found this about plastic bottle tops
https://www.suez.com.au/en-AU/sustai...ps/bottle-tops

It is difficult to recover small, loose bottle tops from mixed kerbside recycling with sorting technology currently used in Materials Recycling Facilities (MRFs). However, technology is always improving, and we may be able to sort bottle tops more efficiently in the future.

Bottle tops and lids must always be removed from any bottle or container you place in your recycling bin. Bottle tops and lids larger than the size of a business card (eg. lids from jam jars) are much easier to sort, and can be placed in recycling bins, provided they are separated from the bottle or container.
At this time, plastic bottle tops smaller than the size of a business card should not be placed in recycling bins, but steel and aluminium bottle tops can be recycled if you follow the directions below.

Bottle tops are too small to get collected in the sorting process, but if placed in a can of the same metal type they will get collected for melting with the appropriate material. To present these bottle tops for recycling you need to:

1. Wash the bottle tops to remove any food residue
2. Place the clean bottle tops inside a can of similar material – if a magnet sticks to it, it is steel – if not, it is aluminium.
3. Squeeze the can to close it so the bottle tops don’t fall out
4. Put the can in the correct recycling bin

The steel and aluminium from bottle tops can be turned into street signs, car parts and new bottle tops.

I found this article for someone in Canberra who recycles plastic lids into prosthetic arms and hands for kids. It's called Lids for Kids

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-...hands/11249628

https://www.facebook.com/Lids4KidsAU/

Trying to see if I can get some more contact details. Would be great if all our local schools were collection points for Brisbane...

[SSecret Squirrel]

Something they mentioned in the 2040 Movie. The search engine Ecosia gives their profits to planting trees. It says over 60 million planted so far.

https://www.ecosia.org/

I've switched to that as my default search engine on my desktop. And I'll try and work out how to do that on my phone too.

Thanks so much for linking this. I've switched search engines and "earnt" 61 trees so far.
Also ecosia seems to have exploded in recent months - the 2040 movie was obviously great PR. I've just watched a zero waste youtube video and ecosia was one of their recommendations. The video was released in March 2019 and the screenshot of the homepage had the ticker at 10 million trees planted. It is now 61 million.

[SSecret Squirrel]

Found this about plastic bottle tops
https://www.suez.com.au/en-AU/sustai...ps/bottle-tops



I found this article for someone in Canberra who recycles plastic lids into prosthetic arms and hands for kids. It's called Lids for Kids

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-...hands/11249628

https://www.facebook.com/Lids4KidsAU/

Trying to see if I can get some more contact details. Would be great if all our local schools were collection points for Brisbane...

Thanks for this tip too. I had no idea that bottle tops weren't recycable and always put milk bottles etc in the recycling bin with the tops still on.

[babybeeno1]

Not sure if this has been added or not. But the bit you open tor canned drinks with you can recycle seperately as they get melted down and made into prosthetic legs etc. I pull ours off for a friend of my dads who has collected them for years for someone who does this

[BH-bubhub]

I found the details of the places where you can currently drop off plastic lids for Lids for Kids.

https://envision.org.au/bottle-top-drop-off-locations/


Sadly nothing near us. I'm going to post in our local FB groups and see if any of the local cafes and schools can become drop off points.

[LJD23]

I know this isn’t plastic but I’ve been going through DS old clothes and there are some stuff that are no good to be donated/sold. Is there somewhere I can take these to be recycled rather than putting them in the red bin for landfill?

[HappyDaysAllRound]

Subbing to read tonight 👍