Wipe out Contamination

The Recycling Heroes have uncovered recycling's arch enemy, the villainous 'Contamination'. Using grease, food scraps, and putting the wrong items in yellow lid bins like plastic bags, this evil monster tries to contaminate clean recyclable items.

When Contamination succeeds, the recyclables are deemed contaminated and have to be sent to the land of no return (the landfill). A scary and sad end for a recyclable item and a waste of valuable resources.

Contamination takes on many different forms:

		Wipe out plastic bag Contamination! Plastic bags are NOT accepted in yellow lid recycling wheelie bins. A tip from Recycling Hero Mr Fantastic Plastic 7: Recyclable items need to be placed loose into the recycling bin, NOT contained in a plastic bag. Items in plastic bags cannot be sorted out, plus plastic bags jam up the machinery at the Material Recovery Facility.

		Contamination lurks in the form of lids! Lids are NOT accepted in yellow lid recycling wheelie bins. A tip from Recycling Hero Mr Fantastic Plastic 7: Rinse out all your plastic containers and bottles to remove any leftover food or drink from inside. Plastic bottle tops are not accepted in recycling bins and the liquid and air in the bottle causes problems at the Material Recovery Facility. So remember to remove all liquid, lids, caps and straws before putting your plastic containers with a recycling symbol (with numbers 1-7) in the recycling bin.

		Clean it! Don't let food scraps be Contamination in your recycling bin. Food scraps are NOT accepted in yellow lid recycling wheelie bins. A tip from Recycling Hero Steel: Food scraps contaminate recyclable items. Any food that remains in a recyclable item should be removed or rinsed off. Put food scraps in a compost bin, compost pile, or put into your general waste bin.

		See through Contamination's disguises! Pyrex and crockery products are NOT accepted in yellow lid recycling wheelie bins. A tip from Recycling Hero Glass Girl: Pyrex products are glass but they have been chemically treated to withstand high temperatures which changes the composition of the glass. Different type of glass products melt at different temperatures and fracture differently through the crushing process. If pyrex products are mixed with standard food and drink glass containers it can cause weakened, defective recycled glass products.

		Sort it! Styrofoam = Contamination Styrofoam is NOT accepted in yellow lid recycling wheelie bins. A tip from Recycling Hero Mr Fantastic Plastic 7: Don't be tricked by that recycling symbol on styrofoam and polystyrene products - it is not accepted in yellow lid recycling bins. Foam is troublesome to deal with as it is very light, flakes easily into tiny fragments, and when windborne can travel long distances into the environment as litter.

		Shut down Contamination's pizza party! Greasy pizza boxes are NOT accepted in yellow lid recycling wheelie bins. A word from Recycling Hero Professor Paper: The part of the pizza box with food or grease on it cannot be recycled as the contaminants seep into the cardboard and make them unable to be made into new products. This means that even though pizza boxes are made from cardboard which is recyclable, they are usually too contaminated to put in your recycling bin.