How to Recycle plastic milk bottle tops
A frequent question on my zero waste is ‘How do I recycle plastic milk bottle tops?’.
Many areas will recycle plastic milk bottles, but as you’ll read in this article, there is a lot of confusion about recycling the plastic tops. Some local authorities ask you to put them on the bottle when recycling, others ask you to remove the tops and recycle them separately and others say to landfill the tops!
Some of you might remember collecting milk bottle tops as children for charitable causes. There are not many charitable schemes for collecting plastic milk bottle tops any more, but there is one company who can help.
GHS will collect and recycle milk bottle tops for the charity of your choice. There is a minimum payment amount of 500 kgs but they will keep track of the amount you send in if you just want to post a small pack at a time.
Why not set up a collection point at your workplace or children’s school? You’ll be able to reduce your plastic landfill waste, help the environment and benefit the charity of your choice too.
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Nice one, that is a very useful bit of info, up until now I’ve been saving them up thinking I can make some kind of bird scarer with them, but never quite working out how
@Simon: Glad it helped Simon and welcome to the site. I began my day by reading your ‘rant’ about MPs and free press.
There are only so many reuse ideas one can come up with before the plastic has to go and be recycled! Only so many coasters from CDs and bird feeders from plastic bottles LOL!
Hi Rae,
In our area the council has taken a different line by asking for the bottles to be squashed and the lids screwed on so as to form a vacuum and make the bottle a lot smaller. This enables many more to be placed in the recycle bin and cuts down on collection mileage, fuel use, costs etc.
Hi Peter,
Lovely to see you here again. I think the choice your council have made is the right one. Compaction makes for better ‘value for money’ and just seems to make sense to me. No point in transporting a product that is 90% air.
Great suggestion for milk bottle tops. It’s amazing how many times we see caps on plastic bottles in our recycling bins at home on trash day or in the bins at the office. So many of us don’t realize that you can’t recycle the lid in the same way.
We recently read about Aveda’s program to recycle a long list of plastic bottle caps. Here’s some of the scoop with links to even more. http://twurl.nl/8dk0k3 hope it’s helpful - every little bit makes a difference.
we can recycle these as part of the kerbside collection as long as they have the type 2 triangle marker
Hi Gina, thanks for leaving your comment and for telling us about Aveda. I read a story about Origins yesterday, who will now take back any company’s plastic cosmetics bottles. It’s great to see these schemes rolling out. I love the philosophy behind your blog - signing up for the RSS feed now
@Maisie Dalziel: Maisie, you seem to have very good facilities where you live. It’s great that you can take advantage of such a good kerbside service.
I would like to make my own plastic Golf Tees from the milk bottle tops. Any suggestions as to melt the plastic safely.
Hi Roger, thanks for your comment. I’ve thought about ’safely’ melting and reusing plastic. The problem is you need a hot air gun or an old oven/ kiln where you can control the tempreature carefully. The trick is to melt the plastic and not burn it. If you use a blowtorch or oher flame tool, you are nearly certain to burn the material and possibly release unpleasant fumes in the process.
I can’t give you tempreatures for melting various plastics, but no doubt there will be information on the net. You may be interested to know that polythene melts very well and in fact, you can weld this material if you have a hot air gun. They are specialist tools with a small nozzel, powered by a heater and air fan. These are not ordinary hot air guns that you might use for stripping old paint.
If you get round to experimenting, I suggest you heat the materials very slowly, to avoid burning. Make sure you use Non food items and keep very well ventilated area when you do this.
If your plastics goes black and smokes, you’ve made it too hot too quickly!
Good luck …
@Mr Green: Many thanks for your reply. I will have a play around in the garage when her in doors goes shopping. Thanks Again
I’ve also learned that Aveda will take almost all plastic bottle caps from things like ketchup and mustard containers, soda and water bottles, and milk jugs. They recycle them so that they can avoid the landfill.
Thanks for the update, Gina. It’s good to know how things are happening across the globe
My council will be starting kerbside collections for plastic bottles next month and giving each household a woven sack to put them in. Wondering why its only going to be plastic bottles and cartons and crisp wrappers. Surely councils should be collecting all plastic with certain symbols on them by now. No idea if they will want the bottle tops removed yet. Also they are going to be collecting cans and cardboard along with the paper and glass. No more plastic bags for refuse but half size wheelie bins to be delivered. Im still feeling this is not enough. Its like councils are getting there very slowly.
@Sue: Wow Sue; I guess it’s all relative. Ours do nothing for plastics collection and crisp wrappers aren’t accepted ANYWHERE in our county; even at the bring sites. I wonder what they will do with it all?
Keep us updated with what is happening with your council; it’s always very interesting to hear of what is happening across the country
In the US, Aveda salons and stores will take hard plastic milk caps for recycling. Actually they will take any hard plastic cap from shampoo, soda bottles, etc recycling and it doesn’t have to be a cap from an Aveda product to qualify. I tried it and they took all of the plastic caps I turned in. They even gave me a free hand massage as a thank you! I wish I got a massage when I dropped my recycling off at the city dumpster!
@Condo Blues: Hi; good to see you again! It’s great that you are backing up Gina’s story about Aveda from your own experiences. And how lovely to get a hand massage; what a great incentive! I’d gather plastic tops from neighbours just to get the massage LOL!
@Simon:
where can we recycle plastic bottle tops in Surrey?
@Jed: Hello Jed, welcome to the site. I don’t know of specific places I’m afraid - but a call to your local council might give you some information. Otherwise you could contact GHS, as outlined in the article and set up a gradual collection
Dear Admin
We are in the process of starting a brand new charity called HS4B (Help and Support For Bankrup People) and in doing some research on things we can ask people to collect I came across your article on bottle tops. I have copied your article and posted it hoping tjhis is ok, I have given your site a mention and would be more than happy to arrange swapping links with you if you’d be interested in that as soon as we are able to.
http://www.hs4b.org/forum/groups/entry/Collecting-Plastic-Bottle-Tops-Jar-Other-Lids
The above link is to where I posted it and it’s our very first article/group page. We are setting up group pages a bit like facebook as we are going to be actively looking for people to run, organise and coordinate them.
I noticed your article says that not many charities collect them anymore, we are going to be collecting them from now on.
Thank you for your time
Kindest regards
Ian Lambert
@Ian lambert: Hi Ian, welcome to the site and thanks for your comment. Your new venture sounds wonderful and it’s great that you will be collecting milk bottle tops. Do people send you a minimum amount, or can they send you whatever they wish? We’ll run a full article on you in the future to let more readers know if you like….
Hello MRS Green and thank you kindly for that, yes we would appreciate very much any help you can give us. Our site is now live and we are adding information daily.
If you had a mind to swap links/banners with us we would very much appreciate it and all you have to do is click on the affiliates button where you can take the coding for the size link you want and email me yours to put up.
I have set up a group page within our forum specifically for bottle tops and plastic lids and we are now looking for someone to run and coordinate that on a national level. Give me 6 months and we will be the foremost collectors of this waste product in the country……lol
Thanks again
Ian Lambert
(founder HS4B.org)
@Ian Lambert: Good news, Ian. It sounds like you have high ambitions, which is fab., I’ll be in touch for a story
Lack of Council information due to ignorance or secrecy or both has been a trial and disincentive to us. I was very pleased to find this article of yours and interested to see the follow-up messages.
I investigated this subject 2/3 years ago and found that indeed GHS were still taking milk bottle lids and that there were a few charities also collecting despite false claims about hoaxes. An argument on a fundraising forum then followed with the moderator calling it to a close!!
If we can squash the bottles and keep the lids on to keep them squashed that I’m sure would be fine by most people. However if we are denied this information (and how much time have you got) then finding an alternative way of recycling (and not landfilling) is also good and raising money for charity a bonus. Both Portsmouth (where GHS is) and Southampton (very close by) have big universities attended by lots of students from all over the country. That is a potential route to getting the lids across the country - find someone who will support your charity or Southampton General Eye Dept or whoever else is collecting.
I ran out of puff but others might have the energy and enthusiasm to make it work.
The general agreement seems to be that recycling is better than incineration and the most helpful and informative Councils will be inspiring and helping their residents to recycle more as well as reduce waste.
@Jane: Hi Jane, what a shame people get so emotive that forums have to be closed! What we have to do; which is what I think you are saying, is to view our ‘rubbish’ as a resource far more and keep items in the system, as it were, instead of land filling or incinerating. We have a new story coming out about milk bottle tops soon; so changes are happening all the time
@Mrs Green: Exactly. Changes are happening all the time to packaging and we should look for and expect that. Sometimes they are disappointing as regards our own personal viewpoints; sometimes not. There is less mixed packaging and less glass.
Yesterday I noticed that the net bag of Sainsbury’s clemenules (are those Yuletide clementines?) said that it was “2″ plastic and recycled by most Councils. I prefer the disclosure of plastic type to the “recycled by most Councils” although that may make you ask the question of your Council!
I would like to thank you MRS Green for the interest in our charity collecting these. I am having some difficulty in speaking to GHS, I have phoned them several times before christmas and again today. I do want to just retiterate that we will be collecting these and if any of your members would be kind enough to collect them for us we would be very grateful.
I just wanted to touch base and let you know we are still excited and interested in this great idea
@Ian lambert: Hi Ian, we have an article nearly ready to go out about you, as you know - this should generate a lot of interest in your collections… Let me know as soon as you hear back from GHS
Hi - we are collecting milk bottle tops to make into brand new products, our first of which is just available and can be seen at http://www.wildstore.co.uk it is called the Meltdown Eco Bowl and is a pet bowl and is the first in a range we have planned. We are making a donation to a local charity based on each tonne of milk bottle tops we can recycle, the success of the whole scheme is dependant on us also being able to sell the products we make! It is early days but we have support from one local council who has been very helpful but so far they are the only one. We are based in Devon but get contacted from people all over who want us to take their tops but we can’t do national collections at present. Smaller amounts of tops could be sent to us in the post if it is helpful. Any suggestions would be appreciated and anyone looking for new Eco products to stock get in touch.
My girlfriends friend has asked me to start collecting any plastic lids, for a young girl who needs a wheelchair and continued saying that she neeeds to match her own wait in plastic lids for a free wheelchair. Is this whole plastic lid talk actually true?
@Barry Barlow: Hello Barry, welcome to the site
I would be very cautious of this scheme and find out more about it - there have been several hoaxes regarding these sorts of things in the past.
While there are many organizations that will collect & donate the plastic bottle caps for fundraisers, we are still turning ours into Aveda. They take a wide range of caps & the salon I turn them into always shares a sample sized bottle of product with me as a nice thank you.
@Gina: Hi Gina, good to hear the Aveda take back scheme is still working out for you and the incentive makes things that little bit sweeter
Hello,
I have lots of milk and other bottle tops to hand into somewhere (all plastic), as I also heard that collecting these will help someone somewhere get a very much needed new wheelchair.
I live in Kent, near Bluewater Shopping Centre, dose anyone know where I can hand these tops in ??
@Loz: Hi Loz, good to see you. I would be wary of this and ask lots more questions. I don’t know of anything in Kent, but you might like to contact GHS and see if they can help you: http://myzerowaste.com/2008/08/recycle-plastics-thanks-to-ghs/
Mrs Green,
Thanks a million for your help, I have sorted a little fund raiser going now for my dance group, as collecting these lids for making wheelchairs is bogas indeed ;o) x
Professional charity fundraisers are very disdainful of collecting milk bottle tops for charity as they have a poor monetary worth to effort ratio. They want your cash…but not everybody has cash. They are afraid that if you have given your milk bottle tops you will think that you have given generously to charity and will not contribute any further. There is more to success than just cash… what about that great community effort and the friendships and mutual support it brings!
@Loz: You’re welcome Loz - glad it was useful.
@Jane: Great comment; community effort and mutual support cannot be replaced by cash… Interestingly, in the Paul Connett talk we went to, he stressed about community and how community composting and recycling projects really bought the community back together again