You can leave your caps on to boost recycling

Waste management body arc21 has revealed that 36,000 is the number of glass bottle aluminium screw tops used in the borough annually.

arc21 – a consortium of 11 local authorities – has launched a “You Can Leave Your Cap On” campaign to increase the numbers recycled.

Aluminium screw tops have become increasingly popular on glass bottles such as wine, spirits and olive oil. The campaign asks people to screw the tops back on to empty glass bottles before recycling them.

Every screw top and bottle deposited in household recycling centres, community recycling centres and glass bottle banks can be transformed into something new, including more bottles, drink cans, mobile phones and even cars.

Ricky Burnett, policy and operations director at arc21, said: “Screw tops are a far from insignificant part of the waste stream. If everyone in Northern Ireland recycled all their aluminium caps this would save approximately 1,125 tonnes of carbon dioxide every year – the same effect as taking 450 medium-sized cars off the road.”