Where to recycle bottle tops in Australia (2024)

Plastic bottle tops - these cheeky little fellas surecan cause some confusion when it comes to how theycan be disposed of responsibly.So much so, thatour inbox is frequently inundated by questions on the subject on the daily! Below, wefill you in on some commonquestions and misconceptions to get you well on your way tosustainable disposable of this (extremely useful and valuable!) resource.

Inmany Australian councils, plastic bottle topsmust be separatedfrombottles before being placed in the recycling bin. Bottle tops aretoo small to be accurately sortedat most Materials Recycling Facilities (MRFs), and if placed loose within your kerbside recycling bin, often end upcontaminatingthe recycling mix or jamming the sorting machinery. Unfortunately, this has meant that up until recently, plastic bottle caps have had to be disposed ofalongsidegeneral household waste,keeping the'non-recyclable' material out of the recyclable waste stream.

In 2019,community charity initiativeEnvision Hands was created with the vision toturn discarded plastic bottle caps into interim mobility aids (prosthetic limbs) for children.

The first phase of the project (bottle cap collection) was hugely successful, with the collection of over 5,000,000 bottle caps in Victoria and another 10,000,000 collected interstate.

However, towards the end of 2019, Envision paused donations, before putting out a call out-to stop the flow of lids entirely, and releasedthe followingstatement to advise of complications in production and quality assurance. "Despite our best efforts, the children’s mobility aids that we have produced from recycled bottle caps have not met our internal quality standards. Regrettably, Phase Two of the project will cease, and we will no longer seek support for the Envision Hands project."

With Aussies around the country diligentlycollecting lids in thethousands, not long after we established Precious Plastic Melbourne we were contacted by Envision, and met with their founder Sean Teer to arrange the handover of around 300,000 lids, and toredirect the never-ending flow of incoming plastic waste to our micro-recycling workshop in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne.

For thefollowing 4 years, wewere ableto provide asustainable solution for Lids4Kids, divertinga valuable resourcefrom landfill, and maintaining the high value of the waste streamthrough repurposing the discarded lids into a range of useful products, such as plastic bricks, gardening tools, jenga blocks and more.

We wereadditionally honoured to produce a range of Zephyr Bros. recycling machinery and product moulds for the Lids4Kids team for use at their headquarters in Canberra.

Here at PPM, we do not accept plastic directly from the public. Lids can be donated for recycling via the following channels:

1. Lids4Kids. Lids4Kidscoordinate plastic collection through local schools, businesses and individuals. You can find your local Lids4Kids group and closest drop-off point via the Lids4Kids website. (If you're having trouble finding your closest collection point, you need to contact Lids4Kids rather than PPM.)
2. Your local micro-recycler. Check out our Impact Map to find micro-recyclers in your area. You'll need to contact them directly to find out what materials they accept at their particular facility.

Thismaydepend onyour location,so your best bet is to touch base with your local Lids4Kids branch or micro-recycler to confirm what can and can't be accepted.

We've attached our general guide below,detailingwhich lidscan be commonly worked with by micro-recyclers, and recycling requirements.

PPM Lid Recycling Guide:

1. Lids labelled 2 or 4 only (if in doubt, keep it out!)
   
2. Lids must be 100% clean (even a cheeky spec of dirt can contaminate a batch)
3. Size no bigger than a milk lid
4. Any inserts removed (and if not removable,remove from the batch)

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