The majority of the items we recycle each day have them, but what should you do with lids or bottle caps when you are ready to recycle the container? After a quick rinse, here’s the lowdown on how to dispose of lids and caps:
Plastic Twist-Off Containers Big or small, we don’t discriminate when it comes to plastic twist-offs. When you’re done with a detergent or beverage container, give your bottle a quick rinse, twist the lid back on, and recycle. When you detach a plastic lid from the bottle and recycle them separately, the lid can fall into small nooks and crannies of the machinery and often misses its mark.
Glass Jars with Metal Lids
You’ve eaten the last pickle and rinsed out the juice, now what do you do when the lid is a made of a different material than the container? When it comes to glass jars with metal lids, simply remove the lid from the jar and recycle them both, separately. This allows them to be sorted into the right category of material.
Glass Bottles and Metal Bottle Caps
No matter the fizzy beverage your glass bottle held, the lid is often different than the bottle, so what’s next? The good news is, you can recycle both! Similar to glass jars, after your bottles have undergone a quick rinse, recycle both parts separately.
Bonus Tip: Leave the labels on your bottles and jars! Instead of spending ten minutes trying to spotlessly remove those sticky paper labels, just leave them on! The recycling process rids the container of the label eventually anyway.
If you have questions about other types of lids, it’s a safe bet those aren’t the recyclable kind. To learn more about what’s recyclable, visit our recycling guide www.WhereItShouldGo.com/guide or give us a call at 515.244.0021.