How To Prepare Your Bottles and Can For Recycling In Adelaide

June 25, 2021

When taking your bottles and cans to a recycling depot, there are some things you have to do. 

Your bottles and cans have to be in a certain condition to ease the recycling process, especially since you can experience some delay if the bottles are in bad condition. In a worst-case scenario, some or all of the bottles may have to be returned to you.

These tips will apply to every recycling depot you go to. Here’s how to prepare your bottles and cans for recycling in Adelaide to avoid any delay or troubles.

Proper recycling bins and bales

Preparing your bottles and cans for recycling starts from where you store them. Where you store your bottles and cans usually makes a huge difference. The wrong storage bin can compress your bottles and cans- making them useless for recycling.

The recycling bin you use for recycling has to be recyclable, too- it shouldn’t be a toxic, non-recyclable material.

The recycling bin or sack you use should also be spacious. There should be enough room in the sack to accommodate all your bottles and cans without them crushing each other.

Once one recycling bin gets full, you should get another one. Don’t squeeze your bottles and cans before they get to the Adelaide recycling depot- it should be done at the recycling depot. 

So step one to preparing for bottle and can recycling , make sure you’re storing them properly.

Clean them 

Everything you plan to submit at your recycling depot should be clean. Bottles can have leftover drinks or liquids in them, which can make them invalid for recycling. 

When you get to the recycling depot, and you’re about to submit it, you’ll either have to wait for them to clean them out. Or you may be told that your bottles can’t be accepted. In the long run, dirty bottles will give you bad news.

Same thing with cans; in fact, more so with cans. Because cans can have leftover foods that can contaminate them if they’re not cleaned properly. Immediately you’re done using your bottles and cans, just clean them. That way, you won’t have a pile of dirty bottles and cans to clean.

Only submit bottles and cans

You’d be surprised at how often people submit things apart from bottles and cans. They may submit bottles and cans and other types of dirt. “ why can’t they just separate the bottles and cans from the dirt? “ you may be thinking. 

Well, that’s because the dirt or other materials could contaminate the bottles and cans, therefore making them unfit for recycling.

Spending weeks washing and gathering bottles and cans only to find out they’re not valid can discourage you from recycling. 

You can force yourself to only gather bottles and cans in a sack by having a separate recycling bin for them. Preferably a recycling bin that stands out and serves as a visual warning to only dump bottles and cans into them.

Thornton’s recycling has a wide range of recycling equipment you can take advantage of to make the whole process easy. We’re also the best Adelaide recycling depot you can use for your bottle and recycling.

Need some extra cash? Visit our depot now!