How Should Trash and Recyclables be Stored? Guide to Follow

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Are you someone who is into doing stuff that doesn’t harm the environment in any way? Well, we definitely need to appreciate you on this!

With people gaining more knowledge on how our daily stuff harms the environment, most of them are now moving towards strategies and steps to prevent it from happening.

One of those strategies includes properly storing your trash and recyclables to prevent the circulation of offensive odour.

If you want to follow such strategies and know how should trash and recyclables be stored, look no more, as we have covered all the necessary information under one roof.

How Should Trash and Recyclables be Stored?

How should the Trash be Stored?

How Should Trash and Recyclables be Stored

Here are a few of the easiest steps to follow to store your trash in a proper way:

  • Organize or settle a space in your home for the trash to be stored, which is quite far away from your living rooms and kitchen, to avoid any kind of bad smell.
  • Make sure you buy containers that are big enough to store huge amounts of waste for days to come, and they have lids attached so that smell doesn’t come out of trash and pets are also kept out.
  • Use containers that are quite easy to clean and make sure to have multiple of them to assign each container for a different type of waste. Different containers can be used for storing different waste, like one for organic and bio waste, one for paper and cardboard, one for residual waste, etc.
  • Cover your trash can with big plastic bags so that it gets easy for you to empty the cans when needed.
  • If you have broken glass that can’t be recycled, make sure to cover it with paper or other cover to keep the garbage carriers safe from any injury.
  • Ensure that your trash can is present at the place where the trash carriers can easily pick it up and empty it up on the day and time of collection.

How should the Recyclables be Stored?

Here are a few of the easiest steps to follow to store your recyclables in a proper way:

  • Ensure that you have separate cans for putting in your recyclables so that they don’t get mixed with trash.
  • Don’t put the non-recyclable items in these cans since it can get quite complicated for you to store and correctly organize your recyclables.
  • Check with your recycling centre if you are unsure whether an item should be put into recyclables or trash cans.
  • For the food boxes that can easily get recycled, make sure to clean all of them thoroughly before putting them in the recyclable bin. This will decrease the risk of pests and odours in your surroundings.
  • For the cardboard, flatten them so that they can easily fit in the can and don’t occupy much space so other stuff can also easily fit in.
  • If the recycling centre collects the recyclables on their own, make sure to keep your containers where they collect them on the day and time of collection.

Difference between Trash and Recyclables

How Should Trash and Recyclables be Stored

So, how would you know whether your waste needs to be trashed or recycled?

Recyclables

Products that are made so that after use, they can easily be broken down and made into other products come into the category of recyclables. Some of those products include plastic-based stuff, glass, paper, and metal.

Trash

Any material that you think is non-recyclable or non-biodegradable goes into the category of trash. This includes paper food storage boxes like pizza boxes, candy wrappers, etc., plastic bags like shopping or garbage bags, miscellaneous products like light bulbs, car and household batteries, etc.

Why does storing Trash and Recyclables matter?

How Should Trash and Recyclables be Stored

Do you think storing both recyclables and trash products makes any difference? Here we have answered it for you.

This is because if you don’t pay much attention to how you get rid of trash and recyclables, this can put a lot of workload on someone else, including your garbage carrier, to the recycling facility’s workers. In short, the way you store your stuff definitely works for people down the lane.

Additionally, storing trash without thought can definitely impact your family, neighbours and environment since improperly stored trash can invite offensive smells, rodents, and pests into the surroundings.

These are a few of the major reasons you need to know how trash and recyclables should be stored properly.

DIY Home Recycling Bins to Organize your recyclables

Are you looking for some ideas to store your recyclables at home without having to worry about putting in much effort? Well, here are the best ideas that we have collected especially for you.

1-      Behind the door Hanging Storage Bins.

If you don’t want your recyclables to take up much space in your house, you can definitely go with this idea. Create a recyclable station behind the doors by hanging multiple tiny storage bins. This can turn out to be a perfect solution if you are living in a tiny house or an apartment. From small wooden crates to reusable plastic bags, you can use anything to store your recyclables and empty them up when filled.

2-      Metal bucket recycling station

Using multiple metal buckets for different kinds of waste will make your recyclables quite organised and won’t contribute to environmental hazards since you are replacing plastic bins with metal buckets. Additionally, even when you put them in your garage, they are not aesthetically displeasing and are easy to clean. You can also add either printed-out labels or paint a custom label yourself to put on each metal bucket to make it clear which recyclable waste goes to which bucket. These labels may include paper, glass and metal, plastic, etc.

3-      Milk Crate Recycling Storage

You definitely don’t want your milk crates to go into landfills since you are so much considerate about the environment, therefore, this idea will definitely sit quite well with you. You can stack the milk crates above each other, either in your garage or your porch, while each crate has the label of which recyclable waste goes in which crate. You can also combine them together and hang them on the wall if you like. This is the best method if you have many recyclables to store since they provide significant space to carry much of it in one go.

4-      Kid-Friendly Recycling Station

It is extremely important to engage your kids and teach them about what recyclables are and how they help prevent your environment from harmful hazards. You can easily do it by creating a little recycling station for them, so they know they have to put their recyclable waste into it and get engaged this way. You can easily make such a small recycling station from an empty cardboard box, decorate it with some paintings or stickers and keep it in a place that is easy for kids to reach. This way, they will always know which recyclable material goes in which card box.

5-       Shopping Bag Recycle Bins

Shopping bags that come with flattened bottoms are perfect for creating a recyclable station since they usually come in large sizes and in different colours. What makes it an excellent choice is the fact that they come with handles which make them super convenient to carry to the recyclable centre. You also have various options to keep them including lining them up on a shelf or floor, hanging them where you please or even hiding them behind the doors if you are low on space.

How to avoid increasing your home waste?

Here are a few of the tips that you can follow to ensure you can easily avoid increasing trash at your home:

  • The change starts within oneself. You can reduce the amount of garbage produced in your home by using cloth bags instead of plastic. Also, ask the shopkeeper not to double your grocery with two plastic bags if you forget to take your cloth bag along.
  • Avoid using plastic bottled drinks unless they are absolutely necessary for you to buy.
  • Go for reusing and recycling methods. Donate the stuff that you think is useless for you instead of throwing it since it can be useful for someone else and this way you can prevent contributing to increasing waste. Additionally, recyclable recycling waste is the best strategy to follow.
  • Dispose of hazardous waste, like light bulbs, batteries, etc., in a proper hazardous trash facility.

Conclusion

The increasing knowledge of a sustainable and clean environment is finally forcing people to follow strategies that help them avoid contributing to harming it. This can begin from home, and the best way to do this is to know how to store your waste and not throw it away carelessly. In this article, we have covered how should trash and recyclables be stored so that you know what you can do with both kinds and play your part in being a great citizen.