Green

Items That Cannot Be Recycled

As much as we’d like to take this ‘go green’ initiative to the next level, there are some items that cannot be recycled. Whether these are from the workplace or the home, almost 75% of these items are recyclable, with the exception of the remaining 25% to items that aren’t recyclable.

One has a moral obligation to committing themselves to this cause of recycling, as this is vital to the longevity of our survival on this planet, and if not kept in check will result in future generations paying for all our selfish choices in rapidly depleting the planet’s resources to our advantage. However, we also have to accept the fact that there are some items which cannot be recycled, and that the only approach one can take is by replacing the components of these products with recyclable material.

The most popular items (that you might be familiar with) that cannot be recycled by conventional methods are:
Batteries
Ceramics
Grocery Bags
Toxic product containers
Milk Cartons
Juice boxes
Textiles and shoes
Round Dairy Tubs
Plastic pots, cups and utensils
Styrofoam packaging
Glassware
Computers
Yellow paper that are used for Post-It Notes and Information Directories
Shredded Paper
Fast food wrappers
Aerosol cans
Light Bulbs
Syringes
Needles
Gift wrap
Paper towel
Tissue paper
Stickers
Rubber Bands
Waxed paper
Aluminium foil
Pie Tins
Scrap metal

And this is not an exhaustive list. However, newer ways by one can ‘recycle’ these items by reusing them are being explored (for example the Clothes Swap since the late nineties), until the time when unrecyclable components in the aforementioned items are replaced with ‘greener’ ones.