How to recycle waste at home

The importance of recycling can be summarized in three essential factors:

1. Reduced consumption of virgin raw materials. For example: recycling paper avoids the unnecessary felling of trees, recycling plastic contributes to the reduction of oil consumption, and recycling glass conserves the riverbeds where the sand used in production comes from.
2. Save energy to reduce your carbon footprint. Producing products from recycled materials instead of new materials consumes less energy and fewer natural resources. Waste treatment is a huge source of greenhouse gas emissions, whereas the recycling process reduces C02 emissions;
3. It reduces the amount of waste sent to landfills, where many of the packages that could have been recycled and reused take years to decompose. Not to mention that recycling extends the life of existing landfills and prevents new ones from being built.

In "Lisbon Green Capital 2020"

Green Point:

• Glass bottles without metal lid;
• Empty perfume bottles;
• Jam/preserves jars.

Yellow Point:

• Shampoos and detergents;
• Plastic bottles;
• Cans;
• Yogurt and milk cartons;
• Aerosols;
• Styrofoam;
• Plastic bags;
• Butter packaging;
• Rice and pasta packaging;
• Meat and fruit trays.

Blue Point:

• Cardboard boxes with no fat or grease;
• Magazines;
• Newspapers;
• Paper bags;
• Writing and printing paper.

Other recyclable waste:

There are recyclable residues that the different Points are not able to receive. For this, there are specific places where you can deposit them, such as recycling yards and other collection points.

• Edible oils - These should not be dumped down the drain as they cause both environmental and sanitation problems. Place the oil in a small container and, when full, close it tightly and deposit it in one of the many oil collection containers put in place for this purpose. These are located in city buildings, recycling yards, or supermarkets.
• Batteries - These should not be placed in common garbage or recycling bins. They contain heavy metals such as mercury, nickel, and lithium which, when released, can contaminate soil and groundwater if batteries are incinerated or remain in a landfill and thus pose a health and environmental hazard. As they need specific treatment, they must be deposited in battery collection containers located in city buildings, recycling yards, or supermarkets.
• Fluorescent bulbs - Unlike single-ended round bulbs, they contain a flammable material that pollutes the environment if disposed of in common rubbish. Therefore, they must be brought to recycling yards, electronic networks, or other places with specific collection containers, such as supermarkets. Single-ended round bulbs can be disposed of in unsorted waste.
• Electrical and electronic equipment - To hand over this equipment, we recommend you contact the City Council or a commercial space near you.

• Drain packages – you do not need to wash them out, but it is important to drain the contents of the packages, mainly to avoid bad odors.
• Flatten packages – this takes up less space at home and reduces the volume it will occupy in the container, reducing the costs and pollution caused by the transport and storage of these materials.
• There is no need to remove labels and caps – the recycling process separates these elements. 
• Wait for the right collection days – in some cities, waste collection is done door-to-door and, in these cases, there are specific days for each type of waste. Keep track of the correct days so that the bags do not remain at the door for a long time, causing a bad odor and untidiness. 

• Napkins – As they are made of paper, the first impulse would be to put them in the blue container. Nevertheless, due to fat and grease, they must be deposited in the organic container. The same goes for pizza boxes, kitchen towels, and paper tissues.
• Medicines – Despite having paper or aluminum packaging, they should not be deposited in the recycling bin. We recommend you bring them to a pharmacy so that they can be processed in a way that does not pollute the environment.
• Not all glass goes in the glass container – Broken mirrors, cracked pyrex, or blown bulbs should go to unsorted garbage. They do not melt at the same temperature as glass bottles or jars, which can render the entire batch of recycled glass unusable.
• Only cardboard and paper go to the Blue Point –– here stickers, plastic-coated paper, aluminum foil, photographs, and cling film are not allowed.
• Milk and juice cartons – This is a common inquiry, as the exterior is made of cardboard; nevertheless, they go in the Yellow Point, not the Blue. This is because the packages are also made of plastic and aluminum. In the recycling process the three materials are separated. This rule also applies to similar packages such as cream or processed tomato packaging.
• Pens – Although made of plastic, a pen is not packaging. This applies to materials such as combs and rulers or metal materials such as buckets, pots, and lids. In these cases, we either use our creativity to reuse them or bring them to a recycling yard or even in unsorted garbage.