What to do with Plastic Bottle Lids
With Waste Action Maleny
We were recently asked what to do with plastic bottle tops (e.g. from milk bottles). Presently they’re sent to landfill through Sunshine Coast Council’s waste collection—even if they’re left on bottles or placed in the recycling bin.
An estimated 375 million plastic bottles are discarded yearly in Australia, most of which go to landfill, even with recycling. That leaves a lot of bottle tops that will take hundreds of years to break down, leaching toxins and microplastics, and causing environmental and health damage.
What can we do? Here are some solutions:
• Best: Don’t buy single-use plastic bottles in the first place. No bottles, no lids, no problem.
• Recycle through Lids4Kids, where they’re made into new products. Visit www.lids4kids for details on their ZWW (Zero Waste Warrior) Lids Bags.
• Reverse Garbage (20 Burke St, Woolloongabba) collects and sends lids to artists for creative reuse.
• Consider repurposing lids into decorations, or games like ‘Noughts & Crosses’. Cut a square from cardboard, draw 9 equal squares and use two sets of different coloured lids to play (5 for each player).