How to Properly Sort and Prepare Bottles for Recycling

It’s essential to properly sort and prepare your bottles before sending them off to be recycled. Failing to follow the rules for your particular recycling system (whether it’s municipal curbside recycling or a bottle drop recycling program such as CLYNK) can waste tons of your valuable time and energy, as your bottles may not end up getting recycled at all. Here’s all the info you need to make sure that your recycling does get recycled.

Types of Bottles and Their Recycling Requirements

To help you understand the sorting and recycling process for various types of bottles, here are the most common types, along with the rules for recycling each of them:

#1: PET/PETE Plastic Bottles

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET/PETE) bottles are typically stamped with a 1 inside a small triangle, which is the resin code. Standard plastic drink bottles (i.e., those containing water, soda, etc.) tend to be made of this type of clear and glossy plastic, along with jars used for peanut butter, containers of cooking oil, and other common food containers. In the vast majority of cases, PET/PETE bottles can be recycled as part of standard plastic bottle recycling. In fact, PET/PETE is the most recyclable and the most recycled plastic in the United States.

#2: HDPE Plastic Bottles

High-density polyethylene (HDPE) plastic bottles are stamped with a resin code of 2 and tend to be lightweight and strong. HDPE plastics commonly make up large-sized milk and juice jugs as well as containers for shampoo and detergents. They’re also used to store many cleaning products, as they’re particularly chemical resistant. HDPE containers can generally be recycled at standard plastic recycling facilities as well.

Glass Bottles

Although glass bottles are not quite as resistant to breakage as plastic bottles, the coolest thing about glass is that it is 100 percent recyclable and can be recycled over and over – infinitely, in fact – without ever degrading in quality. Since new glass production typically requires the raw materials of sand, soda ash, limestone, and various other additives, recycling glass can save vast amounts of raw materials and energy and is commonly well worth the effort.

Step-by-Step Guide to Preparing Bottles for Recycling

Bottle recycling is fairly simple, but it’s important to make sure that you follow the correct guidelines to avoid your bottles ending up in a landfill instead of being recycled. Here’s a breakdown of each step involved for bottles to be recycled:

1. Make sure the bottles that you’re recycling are made of materials that can be recycled by your local recycling system (or bottle redemption service, such as CLYNK, depending on what you’re recycling).
2. Empty out each bottle of liquid and other residue.
3. Thoroughly rinse the bottles with water to remove as much of the remaining residue as possible, preventing contamination of the recycling stream.
4. In the case of CLYNK recycling, you’ll want to leave the caps and labels on the bottles. However, some recycling programs may have you remove the caps or labels—check the guidelines for your particular recycling program.
5. Bag the bottles and tie the bag securely (a double knot is ideal) to ensure that the bag doesn’t open and that your containers are not lost before they have the opportunity to be recycled.

Recycling bottles is really this easy…

Common Mistakes to Avoid When Recycling Bottles

In order to successfully recycle bottles, here are some mistakes you’ll want to make sure to avoid:

• Leaving residue in the bottles: Failing to thoroughly empty your bottles before sending them to be recycled can contaminate the recycling stream. This means that your bottles may end up getting discarded to a landfill to avoid this contamination, instead of being recycled. Depending on the particular recycler, non-liquid residues (such as a bit of cork left in a wine bottle) may or may not be an issue – review the rules for your particular recycling system to see if you should be concerned about these rules.
• Mixing in non-recyclable items: Not every type of plastic can be recycled. For instance, straws, plastic cutlery, and food wrapping generally can’t be recycled. In addition, if the plastic in question has a resin code of #3, #6, or #7, it’s safe to say that it’s non-recyclable. Don’t mix these resin code items in with your recyclable bottles or they may need to be discarded to avoid contamination.
• Breaking glass bottles: When recycling glass bottles, it’s particularly important to avoid breaking them, because broken glass generally cannot be recycled.

Where to Properly Dispose of Bottles for Recycling

The proper approach to disposing of bottles for recycling depends on your location and the type of facilities that are available to you. In the case of a standard municipal curbside recycling program, it’ll typically involve placing your prepared bottles in a designated recycling bin. You may also bring bottles directly to your local recycling facility, especially when recycling larger quantities in bulk.

Another great option are bottle drop recycling programs, where you fill up bags of bottles (and cans) and take them to your nearest drop-off location. Many of these programs are run by private companies, such as CLYNK, and may even reward your recycling efforts by returning the deposit you paid for each bottle that you recycle (as CLYNK does!).

In the case of CLYNK, the bottle drop recycling process involves placing your prepared bottles and cans in green recyclable bags, tagging them with personalized bag tags, and scanning each bag as well as dropping them off at a nearby drop-off location.

Start Recycling Bottles (and More) with CLYNK

You can sign up with CLYNK online or at your nearest CLYNK kiosk. You’ll receive free CLYNK cards, bag tags, and CLYNK bags to get you started.

For more information on how CLYNK works, visit our FAQs page.