One of the most important and valuable things you can do as an individual is to recycle.
Plastic is one of the biggest polluters worldwide and in Jamaica, more than 800 million plastic bottles alone are produced annually.
Unfortunately, many of these end up in landfill (where it can take 500 years to decompose!), being incinerated, blocking our gullies, or littering our land and water and killing animals and sea life.
And this plastic waste leaks pollutants into the soil and water, which ends up in our food chain.
Shockingly, it’s estimated that there are already 165 million tons of plastic debris floating around in the oceans.
Recycling removes at least 70% of the refuse destined for landfill so that is why we must make a concerted effort to recycle.
We’re not getting a second chance with this beautiful planet of ours, so let’s be kind to it and take practical steps to look after our environment and to make it a clean and safe place for future generations.
There are many benefits to recycling, chief among them being that it:
- reduces waste sent to landfills and incinerators
- prevents pollution.
- conserves natural resources and energy
- creates jobs.
7 simple steps to start recycling today
And the best news is that recycling is easy, meaning you can get started right away.
So, here are 7 simple steps to start recycling today:
- Get educated: Before you start recycling your plastics at Recycling Partners of Jamaica centres, you need to make sure you know exactly what can be recycled and how to identify these items. All PET (1) and HDPE (2) plastics are accepted and to identify these items, check the base of the container or bottle for the relevant number. Be mindful that this means more than just drinks bottles. Also included are plastics used to store chemicals, lotions, shampoos, sauces and much more. So, check your cupboards and closets at home and make sure you’re recycling!
- Get some bins: You should get extra bins or boxes so that you can separate your waste at home. Having a separate bin for your PET and HDPE plastics means you can easily sort them and keep them clean, and then it’ll be easier to take them to your nearest drop-off centre.
- Make sure bottles are empty: Make sure the items are empty, clean, and dry before dropping them off at your nearest RPJ centre.
- Separate plastics from regular garbage: It’s important that you separate your PET and HDPE plastics from the rest of your household waste. Only these plastics can be recycled by RPJ.
- Twist or crush bottles: Oh, and make sure to replace the caps as they can be recycled too.
- Sign up for payments from RPJ: Did you know that RPJ pay up to $50 per kilogram of plastics? So, you actually get paid to recycle, and it costs you NOTHING to get started.
- Drop them off at your nearest drop-off point: You can take your PET and HDPE bottles to a RPJ drop-off centre near you, and they’ll do the rest! Simply log onto their website and check out their interactive map to find your nearest location.