Recycling your plastics is a great habit — but doing it right is what really counts. Items like milk bottles, meat trays and yoghurt pots should be rinsed before they go into the recycling bin. When containers are left with food or liquid inside, they can contaminate other recyclables during collection and sorting, which can send entire loads to landfill instead of being reused.

It’s also important to take off any lids and check the number on your plastic items before tossing them in the bin. At the moment, only plastics numbered 1, 2 and 5 can be recycled. Leaving lids on or putting in the wrong plastics into the system creates extra sorting work, slows down processing, and increases the risk of contaminating materials that could otherwise be turned into something new.

Every rinsed bottle and correctly sorted container helps strengthen New Zealand’s recycling efforts. As highlighted in the recent Waste-Ed with Kate video below, recycled plastics are being transformed into new products right here in Aotearoa. So next time you finish the milk or scrape out the last spoonful of yoghurt, take a moment to rinse, check, and recycle right — because small actions at home can have a big impact on the environment.