In a further bid to reduce the pressure on landfill sites, Waste King – the environmentally-friendly specialist collections, clearance and recycling company – has published a list of ten items which are recyclable but are, commonly, sent to landfill. Waste King’s managing director, Glenn Currie, said:  “Waste King guarantees to recycle at least 85 per cent of all the waste it collects and, for example, over the last four weeks, we’ve separated 23 tons of wood from mixed loads. If we hadn’t separated this wood, it would have gone to landfill but now it can be recycled, reducing the need to cut down even more trees and allowing 23 tons of materials that aren’t able to be recycled to go to landfill in its place.”

“While Waste King is working hard to reduce the amount it sends to landfill, everyone can do their bit to ensure that only non-recyclable materials go to landfill,” commented Andy Cattigan, Currie’s Waste King co-director. “A great way to do this is to make a conscious effort to recycle ten types of material that often find their way to landfill sites.”

These ten common materials that are recyclable are:

1: Glass containers can be recycled into new glass containers over and over again. Recycled glass is also energy efficient since the process consumes 40% less energy than new production.

2: Paper – from newspaper to cardboard boxes, junk mail to grocery bags, recycling paper products helps in energy conservation, water efficiency and air quality. Every ton of recycled paper reduces the production of virgin paper and energy use by 4000 kilowatts, water use by 7000 gallons, and pollution by 60 pounds. The extra 17 trees are an added bonus!

3: Plastic bottles comprise over 10% of our landfills. So recycling plastic containers is an important step to helping reducing the waste going to landfill.

4: Aluminium cans take over 500 years to deteriorate – so recycling them is a less polluting option than putting them into landfill.

5: Steel is recycled more than aluminium, paper and glass combined, since thousands of food products are sold in steel cans.

6: Dry cell batteries are used by the million in modern Western society. Each of these contains mercury, which is highly toxic.

7: E-waste. Computers, mobile phones and TVs use non-renewable resources to produce and may release hazardous substances into the environment if they are disposed improperly.

8: Motor oil is another item that can be recycled. A quart of motor oil can contaminate 2m gallons of clean water if not disposed of properly. A truly recyclable product, motor oil can be refined again and again.

9: Leaves, grass clippingsand other garden waste – which, of course, Nature designed to be recycled.

Andy Cattigan (left) and Glenn Currie, of Waste King.

10: ‘Packaging’ comprises a third of all landfills. The more ‘things’ we buy, the more packaging we generate. Choosing products with minimal recyclable packaging will help to reduce damaging our environment.