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5 Best practices for recycling at home
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We all know that we can’t stop waste production entirely, but each one of us can definitely make a significant contribution to help save energy and natural resources, reduce pollution and the need for landfill. We can also contribute by recycling as much possible. However, do we know how to do it properly? Here’s my 5 best practices in a short video made with Adobe AfterEffects.
1. REDUCE AND REUSE
The first rule is to stop throwing away so much in the first place. We should try to reduce the amount of waste we produce, and, even better, we should always find ways to reuse something, like saving glass jars, re-use plastic bottles, or buy used items.
2. BUY PACKAGING-FREE PRODUCTS
This second rule is related to the first one: reduce waste production! When buying packaging-free products, we will reduce both packaging waste and food waste, as we buy exactly how much we need. Bulk goods require less overall transportation because there are less packaging components that need to be produced and transported.
3. LOOK INTO THE RECYCLING GUIDELINES OF YOUR AREA
Rules, practices and recycling options vary considerably from place to place. In some areas, for example, you can put plastic and aluminium together in the same bin, in others you should divide coloured glass from clear glass. Check the recycling policy of your area to recycle properly.
4. SORT YOUR WASTE
Sorting our recyclable waste is an important step to help ensure that materials collected are recycled properly. Even if paper and cardboard is collected in the same container as plastic and metal packaging, we still need to sort these materials from garbage, food scraps, and other non-recyclable items.
5. RINSE OUT THE DIRTY CONTAINERS BEFORE TOSSING THEM IN THE RECYCLING BIN.
This doesn’t mean we need to wash them thoroughly and with clean water. However, we need to make sure food residue is eliminated, as it is a form of contamination because it can’t be reliably processed. When contamination is too high to be sorted, the entire load is sent to be burnt for energy, or to landfill, instead of being recycled.
This short video was developed imagining that it was sponsored by the State of Geneva with the aim of improving the performance of waste recycling. It could be seen as a complement to the short demo project I developed and that is available in this page.
I developed the video in Adobe AfterEffect, and I used some cool graphics I found on Freepik.