Can Soda Bottle Caps Be Recycled

The bottles float and the caps sink making it easy to separate the two materials.

Can soda bottle caps be recycled.

Traditionally city recycling programs and other recycling centers have asked consumers to remove the lids before recycling their soda and water bottles. Yes plastic bottle caps are recyclable and a growing number of curbside municipal recycling programs are accepting them in their weekly pick ups. Drop caps and lids into cans of matching metal for example steel lids into steel cans and aluminum caps into aluminum cans. You can collect plastic bottle caps and other hard plastic items smaller than a fist in a large plastic bottle or jar to be recycled as mixed plastic but this is only accepted in certain.

Place these bottle caps in an aluminum soup can until it is half full. This is part of an effort to increase the amount of material collected and to avoid sending consumers conflicting messages. They fall through the spaces in between conveyor belts at the central landfill s recycling facility and cause mechanical problems. However these bottle caps can be recycled.

Small metal bottle caps can no longer be placed in your recycling bin loose. The reason is that lids typically are not made from the same kind of plastic as their containers and therefore should not be mixed together with them. Assuming you left the cap on the bottle the first step in the recycling process is to separate the bottles and caps into their individual resins. You can now recycle plastic bottle caps lids the plastics recycling industry is now recommending that consumers replace caps and lids on plastic bottles and containers they recycle.

The material recovery facility mrf will use a pressurized system to expel caps and flatten bottles. The association of plastic recycler s message is to empty. Once you ve filled a can halfway with caps crimp the can closed so the caps won t fall out during recycling collection or processing at the facility. On the other hand removing the caps can cause them to be improperly sorted early on in the recycling process.

If your recycling service doesn t accept loose metal caps and lids in your curbside bin ask your provider if this technique would be acceptable.