Super-simplify plastic recycling for your staff and customers with our single-use plastics recycling sack. Our plastics only recycling service removes confusion to give a cleaner batch of recycling, instantly notching up sustainability points for your business.
What plastics can be recycled?
If you find it confusing, our simple plastic grading guide makes it easy to know which plastics can be recycled!
With over 300 million tonnes of plastic produced each year, and 50% of it destined for single-use, it's a no-brainer to recycle your single-use plastics today.
Single use plastic waste
Got a smaller quantity of single use plastic waste to recycle? Check out our RecycleBox scheme for one-off orders!
Need to recycle plastic bags and other flexible plastics? We can help with that, too!
✔︎ Chuck it in
✘ Please keep it out
Plastic bottles
Plastic cups
Empty cleaning products
Plastic containers
Clean sauce bottles
Liquids
Flexible plastics such as packaging seals, supermarket bags and bubble wrap
Straws
Plastic cutlery
Contaminated packaging
The process of producing plastic bottles takes about three times as much water than the bottles can actually hold.
Benefits
It is estimated that around 50% of all plastic produced is just used once before being thrown away. This "disposable" lifestyle causes over 8 million tonnes of single-use plastic waste to be dumped into the ocean every year, damaging marine life and, ultimately, ourselves.
Can single-use plastic be recycled?
Over the last decade, the world has produced more plastic than during the whole of the last century. But can single-use plastic be recycled? Thankfully, the answer is yes!
After First Mile carries out the commercial waste collection, plastic waste is sorted by colour and type - the number you see inside the recycling triangle on all your plastic products. Materials are then transported to a specialist facility and, from there, each type of plastic goes through a slightly different process.
How to recycle single-use plastic
PET plastic bottles will be used as our example to answer the question “How to recycle single-use plastic?”, PET plastic bottles, for example, are prewashed and sent through a laser sorting machine to separate clear plastic and green plastic. Bottles are then washed in a hot and soapy process that heats them just enough to get rid of caps and labels.
The PET plastic is then shredded, washed and heated one more time. Recycled plastic bottles flakes are sent to be turned into products such as polyester fabric and carpets, or melted and shaped as pellets to be reprocessed again into new plastic bottles, food containers and other 3D plastic products.
Setting up a commercial waste collection for single-use plastics is easy using one of First Mile's commercial bins.
Single use plastic waste
Plastic is a stubborn material that resists decomposition. And, while it can be a nightmare in landfill, it can also be reused several times if properly disposed of and recycled.
However, the process of plastic recycling can be difficult if materials haven’t been cleaned properly. It is important to always give your single-use plastics a quick rinse before throwing them in one of our commercial bins. The cleaner a plastic bottle is, the easier it is to recycle into something new.
Single-use plastics recycling
So get your single-use plastics recycling sacks today and start separating your plastic milk bottles, plastic cups and water bottles for recycling! Need help to know which plastics are recyclable? Our plastics guide is here to help!
Be sure to leave out any plastic bags, bubble wrap and other flexible plastics as these go through a different recycling process. We can help you recycle plastic bags too with our dedicated flexible plastics recycling service.
First Mile also offers a variety of other business waste services beyond plastics. From WEEE recycling to general rubbish removal, First Mile is prepared for anything.
Set up a Plastics Recycling Service
If you're a current First Mile customer, please order through the Customer Portal.
