10 Interesting Items You Didn’t Know Could Be Recycled

It takes around 60 days for your standard 330 ml aluminium can to go from being recycled back to a store shelf. In part, this is because it is one of the most easily recyclable materials. In 2021, UK households generated 27.7 million tonnes of waste, of which 44.6% were recycled.

When talking about recycling, most people think of items such as plastic bottles and cardboard, but did you know there are many more interesting items that can be recycled?

According to Jeremy O’Brien, director of Applied Research at the Solid Waste Association of North America, in theory, almost any material can be broken down and recycled. With that being said, here are 10 surprising items you didn’t know could be recycled.

Pineapple Recycling

Yep, you read it right. Surprisingly, there are some interesting initiatives out there that are designed to either reduce food waste specifically from pineapples, or make the best use of its byproducts.

According to letsrecycle.com, UK retail chain Sainsbury’s is planning to sell pineapples without their crowns in an effort to cut food waste. By doing so, the crowns will be recycled back into the agricultural system in their country of origin. Some will be replanted in pineapple fields, while others will be processed into animal feed. This initiative is expected to reduce waste by 700 tonnes annually.

How Are Pineapples Recycled?

Pineapples are classified as food waste. A popular process to recycle food waste is called ‘anaerobic digestion’. Once collected, the pineapple waste is transported to a specialised anaerobic digestion facility that decomposes this material and releases methane in a sealed tank. This process is used to process your food waste into clean sustainable biogas, as well as liquid bio-fertiliser.

This biogas byproduct is a key reason why anaerobic digestion facilities are becoming an increasingly popular method to recycle food waste when compared to composting. Moreover, it also produces less emissions.

Recycled Animal Bedding

Did you know that if you process a tonne of animal bedding through some EfW facilities, it can create enough energy to power over 2,000 AA batteries? That’s right, even your pet’s old animal bedding can be used to sustainably salvage energy.

How Is Animal Bedding Recycled?

Used animal bedding would be sent to an EfW facility. Through a specialised partnership, Bywaters is able to help produce 675.89 kWh of energy for every tonne of material that gets collected for such facilities.

Soap Bar Recycling

A second-hand bar of soap isn’t as gross as it sounds. Hotels throw out millions of used bars of soap every year. In response, there are companies such as Unisoap and Clean the World that extensively sanitise them and process them into new bars of soap.

How Does Soap Get Recycled?

After the soap bars are collected, all the grime from previous uses needs to be removed. In some cases, this is removed by using peelers to scrape off the outer layers of the soap bar.

In more advanced operations, commercial mixers and refiners may grind and blend different bars into a uniform mixture. Subsequently, this mixture enters an extruder that moulds the soap mixture into standardised bars.

Battery Recycling

According to the British and Irish Portable Battery Association, the UK collected around 19,085.160 tonnes of portable batteries for recycling in 2023, and there’s good reason for this. Many of these components can be safely recovered and repurposed into new batteries and other products.

How Are Batteries Recycled?

Batteries typically have their own dedicated waste stream, meaning that they’re collected and processed separately. After collection, they’re brought to specialised reprocessing facilities, where they are broken down into individual elements for recycling.

The individual materials are valuable because they can be used to make a wide variety of different items. For example, the nickel recovered from batteries can be used to make stainless steel, while lead can be turned into ingots to produce new batteries. Other components such as iron, cadmium and even mercury can all be reused as well.

Clothes Recycling

Textile production is estimated to be responsible for about 20% of global clean water pollution from dyeing and finishing products. Moreover, this wastewater often carries pollutants throughout the food chain, making sustainable clothes disposal incentivised.

How Are Clothes Recycled?

Once collected, these materials are washed and sanitised. The way clothes are processed may vary depending on their condition. If they’re still in good condition, they may be donated through reuse organisations and second-hand charities. If not, items such as buttons and zippers are removed. These textile materials are then sorted and subjected to a series of processes. They are first shredded and then subsequently aligned in a process called carding, setting the stage for their eventual spinning.

With that being said, if you have clothes you’re looking to recycle or dispose of sustainably, make sure to find a reliable waste management company like Bywaters that knows how to process these materials the best way possible.

Confidential Waste Recycling

According to the ICO, over 11,000 data security incidents were reported in 2023. For businesses, this can lead to financial losses and reputational damage, so it is needless to say that you need to have a reliable process when disposing of items containing confidential information.

How Is Confidential Waste Recycled?

Typically, confidential waste needs to be collected by a qualified professional. After collection, physical confidential documents are often shredded and sent to a paper mill, which is then typically processed to create new paper products.

With this in mind, getting rid of data may be a daunting task, whether you want to shred secret documents or are in need of wiping digital data securely, look for companies like Bywaters that offer confidential waste services working towards BS EN 15713 standards, which ensure risk-free data destruction services.

Coffee Ground Recycling

The UK consumes around 98 million cups of coffee every day. As a result, our country’s caffeine habit creates a lot of leftover coffee grounds, which can be recycled into other products if processed sustainably.

How Are Coffee Grounds Recycled?

Believe it or not, many recyclers have their own dedicated coffee ground recycling service. After collection, coffee grounds are then sent to facilities to create a variety of useful products such as coffee logs and bio-fertiliser pellets.

Printer Toner Recycling

It can take 1,000 years for a toner cartridge to fully decompose in a landfill, this also doesn’t take into account the non-plastic components such as the printer ink in itself, and the hazardous implications they have to the environment if disposed of incorrectly. Moreover, up to 97% of ink and toner cartridges can be recycled.

How Are Toner Cartridges Recycled?

Once the collected cartridges are sent to printer toner recycling facilities, any undamaged cartridges are cleaned and reused. Otherwise, they are broken down into parts and recycled.

In fact, companies such as HP have introduced closed-loop recycling systems in some parts of the world to efficiently recover valuable resources such as plastic and metal from used ink and toner cartridges.

Fluorescent Tube Recycling

Did you know that around 95% of a fluorescent tube can be recycled? Its contents, such as glass and metal, can be used to create new lighting products. Moreover, with some fluorescent tubes containing hazardous materials such as mercury, it is of the utmost importance to dispose of these sustainably.

How Are Fluorescent Tubes Recycled?

Just like with other hazardous waste materials, fluorescent tubes need to be sent to specialist facilities to ensure they’re recycled safely. Expert recycling services can provide you with boxes to store them safely to ensure they’re handled separately. This recovery process separates the tubes’ composite materials but takes special care in safely isolating the hazardous materials such as mercury and phosphorus powder.

Recycling Phones, Laptops & Other Electronic Items (WEEE Recycling)

It is estimated that the manufacturing process of creating a new laptop has a carbon footprint of over 300 kg of CO2e. This roughly equates to driving over 800 miles in an average gasoline-powered passenger vehicle. Moreover, it is estimated that over 2 million tonnes of electronic waste is discarded every year.

How Are Phones & Laptops Recycled?

In the UK, electronic devices such as phones and laptops are processed as WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment).

If they’re still usable, recyclers such as Bywaters will work with reuse organisations to find them a new home before resorting to recycling, minimising the carbon footprint of recovering the value of its composite materials.

Otherwise, WEEE recycling services can ensure that their valuable component materials are sorted and can be extracted to create new products. After collection, phones and laptops are typically shredded into smaller pieces. Magnets are often used to separate ferrous metals, such as steel, from the shredded material.

Can Everything Be Recycled? Find Out On Recyclopedia

As mentioned earlier, it’s been said that technically anything can be recycled. The reason that not everything is widely recycled is because it often isn’t as cost-effective as sourcing it from scratch. However, this greatly depends on whether a recycler is able or willing to accept them.

To help keep you informed, Bywaters created Recyclopedia, a resource database that teaches enquirers what can be recycled and how it can be recycled in the UK.

Recycling With Bywaters

If you have any niche items you want to dispose of in an eco-friendly manner, Bywaters is your optimal solution. By collecting waste on our ultra-low emissions fleet and processing London’s recycling in our solar-powered facilities, we specialise in handling all sorts of waste materials to maximise recycling and minimise our environmental impact.