Bottle tops. If you enjoy a healthy tea habit, you’re probably getting through a few a week. Traditionally the pesky plastic that bottle tops are made from can be difficult to recycle, leaving eco-minded tea (and coffee) lovers puzzled.
Approximately 300 million tons of plastic is produced globally each year, with bottle caps amongst the top five biggest contributors to plastic pollution. The heavy duty plastic that bottle tops are made from can take many years to break down, wreaking havoc on marine animals and wildlife in the meantime.
After closing our Freepost service for bottle top collection, many of the community have reached out for other solutions. So, if you’re looking for more information on how to recycle bottle tops – from milk cartons, to fizzy drink bottles and orange squash receptacles – here’s some handy tips to avoid landfill:
Find out what goes in your bins!
As the Blue Planet effect has kicked in across the country, many councils have introduced bottle caps into their recycling processes. Many recycling facilities are now also accepting bottle lids, asking consumers to pop the lid back onto its bottle or carton to be processed together. Just don’t forget to give them a good scrub up first - dirty plastic can contaminate the recycling process and may end up back on the path towards landfill!
However, each council’s recycling policy may vary, so it is important to check what is and is not accepted as part of your household waste. If lids are not recycled in your area, there may be a recycling facility nearby that will accept them. For more information you can get in touch with your council by telephone, email or by visiting their website. Found out your area can’t recycle those bottle tops? Ask them why!
Collecting bottle caps for charity
If you’re looking for a solution that goes beyond recycling, donating your bottle tops to a local charitable-giving scheme may be the solution. Many organisations collect bottle tops to help raise funds for charitable causes. Once deposited and collected, the bottle lids can be broken or melted down to be reused. Collection points are often set up in hospitals, schools or supermarkets. So if recycling isn’t an option, or you’re looking for even more ways to turn your waste into wonders, check around your local area to see what other options are about!
Head into your local Lush store...
If recycling options or collection points are nowhere to be found, have no fear! Although we can no longer accept bottle lids through our freepost service, small plastic bottle tops made from any plastic compound (Lush bottle caps, milk, soft drinks, sports cap drinks, fabric softener caps) can be brought to your local Lush store for collection.
We’ll whisk them away to our Green Hub in Poole where they’re broken down into pellets ready to be sent to Storm Board - a company in Somerset that builds boards from the plastic pellets. Bottle Boards can then be made into waterproof furniture – from wall claddings to chairs and benches. They've been used to make a play area at a refugee camp in France, and you might even spot them adorning the units and table tops in our stores!
So next time you pop into Lush, bring along those squeaky clean plastic bottle tops you’ve collected from home. You can even grab some plastic free products from our naked range to help cut down on the use of plastic even further!