Are You Recycling Plastic Bottle Caps Correctly? Possibly Not.

Are you recycling plastic bottle caps correctly? There’s a chance you might be making a major recycling mistake. Read on for all the info.

According to National Geographic, 91% of the plastics we use aren’t recycled. A huge majority of this – 79% – can be found in landfills or littering the environment. And when plastic becomes litter, it can end up clogging up our oceans, where it is deadly to ocean life.

It’s a huge problem and not one that we can simply recycle our way out of.

Avoiding single-use products and packaging where possible is a better route. Encouraging brands to reduce plastic packaging on products they make is an even better route. And advocating for government incentives that encourage manufacturers to cut down on plastic packaging is the best route of all.

But sometimes plastic is unavoidable. When it comes to these unavoidable plastics, there are a couple of things we can do to help ensure our plastic is more likely to be recycled. Firstly, we can try to avoid the plastics that are least likely to be recycled – such as coloured plastics. And for other items, such as plastic bottle caps, we can try to recycle them correctly to avoid wishcycling.

What’s The Deal With Bottles?

When it comes to recycling plastic bottles, milk cartons, and bottle tops, you may not be aware that advice has changed in recent years. As such, it may well be that you are not recycling plastic bottle caps correctly.

Previously householders were told to remove the plastic caps from drinks bottles and milk cartons before popping them in their recycling bins.

Removing bottle tops was necessary because plastic recycling plants were unable to recycle plastic bottles with caps on them. Lids could jam the processing machines. So removing the caps helped to ensure that plastic bottles stood the best chance of being recycled.

The problem was that as lids are so small, in most cases these loose caps were not getting recycled. Most recycling sorting machines reject any plastic narrower than 40mm. This means most loose plastic bottle caps end up in landfill or our seas.

Consequently, plastic bottle caps are the third most common item found on beaches across the globe. With bottle caps found in the stomachs of dead fish, sea turtles and marine birds, it’s of little surprise that Seas At Risk – a 30-strong association of environmental organisations from across Europe – has classified plastic bottle caps as one of the top 5 most deadly ocean trash items.

What Has Changed?

The good news is that in recent years, recycling processing technology has greatly improved. In most areas, you now no longer have to remove the bottle tops when recycling plastic bottles.

This means that in most cases, then you should leave the bottle cap on when you are recycling plastic bottles and cartons. This is because if the plastic bottle caps stay on the container they will get recycled. Whereas if you remove it and try to recycle the caps separately, there is a much less chance of the caps being recycled.

Bottle top colours also changed in 2023. You’ll notice that in most shops, milk carton tops are now clear, instead of being red, green or blue. And most soft drink bottle tops are also clear, rather than richly pigmented. Coloured caps cannot be easily recycled into food-grade packaging, so this big change increases the chances of the caps being recycled.

So How Should You Be Recycling Plastic Bottles & Bottle Caps?

Confused by the changes? According to RecycleNow, you should follow this four-step process when recycling your plastic bottles:

1. First, empty and rinse your bottle. This is because liquids can contaminate other items, meaning these contaminated items may not get recycled and end up in landfill. The automated sorting process as recycling plants may also deem a bottle containing liquid as too heavy, so it may end up in landfill. Liquid could also damage the recycling plant’s machinery.
2. Leave the label on the bottle. This will be removed in the recycling process which means the labels stand a better chance of getting recycled.
3. Squash your bottle to save space, and to help prevent them from rolling off the sorting machine conveyor belts.
4. And lastly, replace the plastic bottle cap before popping the bottle in your recycling bin.

If there is any doubt, then it is best to contact your local council to ensure this matches their recycling advice. If it doesn’t, ask for their preferred method, and follow the recycling advice for your local area. You can also consider if you can reduce the number of plastic bottles you use, to help reduce the need to recycle.