What Goes Where? Waste Separation at Home

Posted on 23/01/2024

How to Waste Separation at Home

Waste recycling is the new black, in case you did not know. There are various ways of handling it and the first step to it is doing the waste separation. That way, when the time for junk removal comes, you will know what you have for dumping in the waste disposal bin for the landfill, and what you can send for recycling with the proper rubbish collection service. You can organise your own waste in such a way that you can make the rubbish disposal much easier for both yourself and the clearance services you are using. It is a fairly simple method that involves a bit of preparation and rewards your home with order.

The Prep Work

Take six big containers. You decide what you want – boxes, crates, bins, buckets, etc. Just keep in mind that these containers will store all your waste, so make sure they are big enough to handle it until the waste collection team comes. Find a good spot for them – the garage would be nice, or somewhere outside the house, where it won’t get in the way, or there is no danger of anything getting damaged in bad weather. Make sure to add rubbish bags to each container. And then take either labels, or markers, or anything that will allow you to mark the containers.

The Containers

As mentioned, you will have a total of six. And here is what they should hold:

• Paper Waste: This container will take all your cardboard items, all newspapers and magazines, old notebooks or textbooks, writing and printing paper, paper packaging, flyers, envelopes, and so on. Books also fit this category, although you should never throw away books – at least donate them to a library or an antique bookstore.

• Plastic Waste: This container will hold all of the plastic things you will throw away. It might be smart to make it big – plastic is among the most thrown away material in households. All your plastic bottles, cups, boxes, foils, milk cartons, yoghurt cups, and so on have to find their way here.

• Glass Waste: Every now and then families do throw away glass items. Glass beverage bottles and glasses, cracked jars, broken mirrors, etc. This container is for all of those. NB! Do NOT throw away light bulbs in here – apart from being made of glass, they also contain mercury, which is something that is to be disposed of in a different manner.

• Organic Waste: Otherwise known as food leftovers. If you are a cook, then you should be aware of just how much food is wasted when preparing meals and after finishing them. All those leftovers either go here, on in your garden’s compost.

• Residual Waste: This bin should be for all the waste that does not fit the rest of the categories. It should be used for wallpapers, diapers, pet litter, vacuum cleaner bags, cigarette fags and filters, and so on.

• Hazardous Waste: And then you have the bin for all the unhealthy items that should never see the inside of a landfill. Batteries, light bulbs, adhesives, fire extinguishers, old drugs, fluorescent light tubes, old detergents, paint, varnishes and polishes, and so on. Be extra careful with this one, and you better not breathe in when overlooking its contents.

And that is most of the prep work you need. Colour or mark the containers in a proper way so that you don’t make mistakes and start separating. You can also add one more container for metallic and electronic items as well, though they are mostly reusable and you will always have the odd handy neighbour who will know what to do with old electronic equipment. Now you can freely call in the rubbish removal company when the containers and filled and let the recycling and waste disposal begin.