How to Recycle at Home

Recycling can feel complicated, especially if you've never had the ability to recycle at home before.

Research shows that 94% of Americans support recycling, and 74% say recycling should be a priority. But only 34.7% of people actually recycle, usually because they don't know how.

Recycling doesn't have to be complicated though. To make recycling easy at home, follow these simple steps to recycle better every day!

1. Check What to Recycle in Your Area

To start recycling and reducing your personal waste, you first need to know what can be recycled and where to place the materials.

Most areas accept paper and cans, but plastics can get tricky. You can use How2Recycle to see what materials are accepted in your area.

Once you know what materials are accepted and rejected, make a note of it! Print out or write down the list of items, then hang the list on your refrigerator or above your trash/recycling bins. This way, you get easy reminders right before you throw materials away.

2. Clean Your Recyclable Materials

One of the biggest problems recycling facilities face is contamination. Things like greasy pizza boxes, plastic straws and bags, and dirty takeout containers cannot be recycled. When these items get mixed into recycling collections, they can prevent entire batches of material from being recycled.

To make sure your recycling actually gets recycled, remember to clean your materials. A quick rinse and shake of a plastic bottle helps prevent contamination. Make sure all the water droplets come out before replacing the cap and putting the bottle in your recycling bin!

Some plastic containers for yogurt or sour cream might require some heavier cleaning, but it still only takes a few minutes to empty, clean, and dry them. Those few minutes go a long way in helping reduce waste in landfills.

3. Dump Your Materials in the Bin

The final step to recycling right at home is to loosely place your materials in your recycling bin or dumpster.

Never put the materials in plastic bags, trash bags, or bundles! This allows recycled materials to be easily separated so they go to the right locations to be processed.

Here's my bonus tip: put your recyclables in paper bags that you get from the grocery store or mall. When your bag is full, you can dump the materials out in the bin

and put the paper bag in after! Then there's no hefty bin or basket to carry back inside your house.

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And that's it! Now that you know how to easily recycle at home, you're helping the planet a bit at a time.

You're helping reduce waste in landfills, reuse materials, and prevent pollution. Keep this up every day — the earth will thank you!