A retailer has a plan, which is that people should pay 20 penny as a deposit for beverage in disposable bottles or cans and governments are thinking about increasing the recycling rate.

What we need to think about is “reduce and reuse” rather than just “recycle and composting” as although recycling is good, it spends much energy, water and other resource. Whereas, from the point of global warming, aluminum and other metal should be recycled since making aluminum can spend 20 times more energy than recycling an aluminum can. Theoretically, paper, cardboard, glass and even plastics can be recycled without limit so it is worthy.

In most cases, we ignore items in kitchens when we collect recycling garbage. For instance, bamboo toothbrushes can be recycled. As for shampoo, bleach and cleaning-product bottles, they can be recycled if they are empty and cleaned. The lids should be tightened but pumps which cannot be recycled should be taken away. It does not matter if we make small mistakes but nappies should not be thrown by mistake. As usual, as first, you ought to send rubbish to material recovery facility where materials are classified based on their shapes, sizes, weight, magnetism and appearances. Sometimes, we may make mistakes so we should maintain vigilance. For example, degradable plastics look like traditional plastics, thus, the quality of recycling materials will decrease. What is more, materials need to be checked manually so any distinct errors should be detected, such as an unrecyclable cover on a bottle. And some waste should not be thrown into recycling boxes, like pet litter, medical and sanitary goods as it should be sent to landfill by recycling trucks.

Bottles and cans should be cleaned; otherwise, they may be refused due to the dirt. Curry sauces and beer are not welcomed by workers who transport and classify rubbish. Envelopes with plastics can be recycled because plastics can be extracted if envelops enter pulpers and dissolve. Sticky tape on wrapping paper can also be extracted but it is also favorable if you remove it. It would be a problem if you do not classify garbage. What you should do is to separate plastic from card, wash empty tomato tins and imagine that they will become benches, frisbees or other packaging. Yet on the basis of a report, over half of recycling packaging is sent to be processed abroad so it is burnt or buried in landfill probably. A research found that, a paper mill burnt a large number of plastics including goods with British supermarkets labels since flat pieces of plastic were sorted as paper by British sorting machines. Therefore, if you have a habit of classifying rubbish and workers put it into different parts, all the rubbish can be recycled. Conversely, if you throw it into the same trash bin and it will be poured into the back of a truck and sorted later, more rubbish will be abandoned, thrown into landfill, and even incinerators.

In order to improve the recycling quality, glass, plastics and metal drinks containers should be divided. Deposit return is very useful which can increase the number of recycling items. These items can be recycled and made into items for the same use or quality, such as bottles.

It it is possible, drink milk in a traditional way, which means to use bottles. Even though recycling glass bottles are heavy and they need higher temperatures during processing so they consume more energy but it is a better choice, especially for those people who deliver milk from nearby farms. It is more economical if delivery cars consume renewable energy for electricity and bottles are maintained well so that they can be washed for over 20 times to satisfy the demand of climate change. Nevertheless, if you can not afford this kind of milk or there is not service for delivery milk, plastic milk bottles are regarded as a recyclable material with high value so waste corporations are motivated to do such things. Besides, the number of recycling plastics which can be used as food-grade materials, i.e. milk containers, is limited but they can be used to make other items. At present, 30% of plastics in milk bottles are recyclable and some firms are trying to improve the situation. One of the solutions is to sell recyclable milk containers in supermarkets. In the future, consumers can purchase reusable toothpastes, deodorants and ice-creams with recyclable packaging from all sorts of brands.

It is valuable to use cotton bags at least 131 times in life. And no matter which kind of bags you choose, reuse it as much as possible to reduce environmental pollution. Compared to a traditional light shopping bag, a heavier-duty bag ought to be used for at least four times, a kind of nonwoven polypropylene plastic bag should be used for 11 times and a cotton bag can be used for 131 times. Thus, if you want to throw the bag away when it is dirty, you would better choose those you are willing to use. Moreover, when it can not be used any more, you should recycle it instead of sending it to landfill.

What you should do is to purchase recyclable plastics since although you can recycle new-made or “virgin” plastics, it increases the demand and some fossil fuel firms raise the production of new plastics to satisfy the demand. That is why we should pay attention to labels to know whether they are made of recyclable plastics.

Plastic packaging in supermarkets is helpful to reduce some food waste. According to research, shrink-wrapping packaging can prevent cucumbers from water loss, protect cucumbers during transportation and extend expiration date. The expiration date of beef steaks can be prolonged 10 days if they are packed in shrink-wrapping packaging. Whereas, in other situations, it may lead to food waste as if green beans are chopped to put into square packaging, 30-40% of beans will be wasted. Thus, although packaging plays a significant role in terms of food protection and shelf-life extension, it also results in food and packaging waste.

Even if compostable plastics are not the best choice, many fast-food restaurants try to use them to improve the eco-friendly level. Yet the government must send food and garbage to industrial compost plants so that these plastics can be decomposed. Provided that compostable plastics can not be dealt with, citizens can send them to rubbish collections. However, workers do not compost compostable plastics since they are lack of moisture, microbes and warm mixtures. Families have no idea to solve the problem and they are unable to decay in the sea. Even so, compostable plastics are more advantageous than traditional plastics. For example, some compostable plastics are made from lower carbon, recyclable and reusable materials. Using more compostable is beneficial to cooperate with waste collection. To overcome the difficulty above, food suppliers can collect containers which are used by customers. Unfortunately, few suppliers do this. Similarly, a biodegradable nappy is hard to decay in landfill but it must not be put into a recycle box. An environmentally-friendly nappy is a better option instead of a single-use nappy. During productive process, there should be less chemical materials, like bleach when yielding eco-friendly and disposable products.

Currently, plastic milk bottle caps can be recycled so you can flatten milk bottles and screw caps up. But black plastics should be avoided to use although food looks better if it is packed in black plastics because they can not be detected by automatic sorting machines. Additionally, a sandwich should be packed in a tin or reusable packaging so that packaging can be used for several times. Tinfoil is also a good idea but plastic film is not since it can not be reused.

You can look for a carrier bag collection point where bread bags, breakfast cereal liners, frozen food bags, bubble wrap and magazine and newspaper wrappers can also be sent. Except for these, other types are troublesome but most of them can be recycled. The reason is that they are hard to be collected in quantity and they may be stuck in machines in household recycling centers. What is worse, we have to spend much money on collection, separation and recycle, which is much higher than the value itself. Collection stations for all kinds of soft plastics should be set up where these soft plastics, like crisp and confectionary packets, baby and pet food pouches, toothpaste tubes and other things which would be thrown in landfill, can be collected. When there are enough materials, they will be turned into slices or globules which can be used to make picnic tables, fence posts composite paying and others.

Scientists are trying to develop a technique to recycle single-use coffee cups so that 2.5 billion coffee cups can be recycled in England every year. There is a challenge to build up infrastructure to insulate and collect them. And one of the problems is that people drink coffee on the way so it is tough to gain cups and governments do not collect them.

It is said that any recyclable items is conducive to reduce requirements for new products using virgin materials. Whereas, what a person can do is limited. First and foremost, a rule to tell people how to collect all sorts of materials should be issued so wherever you are , you know how to recycle materials. It is supposed to be applied to trash bins on streets. And reprocessing capacity should be enhanced so less rubbish will be sent to foreign countries. On balance, governments and firms lay down the rule so they should be forced to take actions. Governments negotiated about some policies to unify the standard of dry recyclable materials and deposit return. There is also a proposal that packaging which contains less than 30% recyclable plastics should be taxed and manufacturers must pay for all cost for disposal of rubbish. But these projects may come out until 2023. Some politicians may disagree with this idea as provided that local governments make a contract to guarantee enough waste for waste disposal, they will be fined if they do not keep the promise. Infrastructure to recycle rubbish is also a big problem.

If you do not want to use your cellphones any more, do not throw them away randomly. If your cellphones can still work, clear your data and give them to others or donate to charity shops to extend shelf-life. Whereas, you can send them to household garbage recycling stations or governments if they are broken. Electronic devices which have a plug, use batteries, require charging or there is a picture of a crossed-out wheelie bin can be recycled. Electronic devices are valuable so it will be environmentally-friendly if they are recycled rather than thrown in landfill. Batteries that can be recharged are more advantageous. In most cases, batteries contain recyclable valuable metals which must be taken to collection stations or governments.

As a matter of fact, environmental problems including climate catastrophe and species extinction are a cardinal event and some journalists pay attentions to it while some of them not. That is why recycling is momentous in the modern world.