What plastics can be recycled?
Items to be wary of:
Trays
Plastic trays in particular should be checked. The audit found a variety of different types of plastic trays in the rubbish and recycling, including trays used for packaging meat, biscuits and crackers, pies, fresh herb etc.
These trays are made from a variety of plastic types, including plastic #1 (PET), #3 (PVC), # 5 (PP), # 6 (PS), #7 (Other). Many trays do not include a recycling symbol with a number and are therefore classified as unidentifiable containers.
Soft plastics
All soft plastic needs to be removed from trays and placed into the rubbish.
Note: New World supermarkets sell a prepaid courier bag which allows you send your soft plastics away to be recycled by a specialist manufacturer who turns them into such things as fence posts. We encourage people to make use of this service.
Containers with no numbered recycling triangle
In some instances there is no recycling triangle number on a plastic container. In these cases it is non-recyclable and should go into the rubbish bin.
Triggers and pumps
Some #1 containers and #2 containers have a trigger or a pump. Triggers and pumps are generally manufactured from a different plastic to the bottles they are fitted to and often have a metal spring. They therefore cannot be recycled and should be put into your rubbish bin.