After you take the last sip of your drink, make sure to screw the cap back on before tossing the bottle into the recycling bin.
Recycling rules can be confusing. Should plastic straws be recycled? Is a greasy pizza box trash or recycling? Does colored paper belong with white paper? With so many gray areas, it’s easy to get things wrong.
One recycling myth you should definitely stop believing is that you need to remove the cap from plastic bottles before recycling them. In most cases, the opposite is true.
Why You Should Leave the Cap On
Many people assume that removing bottle caps makes recycling easier for workers. But modern recycling facilities are designed to handle bottles with caps attached.
Once plastic bottles are ground up, they go through a water bath. The bottle itself (usually made from PET plastic) sinks, while the cap—typically made from high-density polyethylene (HDPE) or polypropylene (PP)—floats. This makes it easy for recycling facilities to separate and process the materials correctly.
Leaving the cap on actually helps prevent sorting problems and keeps small plastic pieces from being lost in the system.
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