The 4 recyclable items that people wrongly chuck

RAJA Pack's research found three in four people do not know how to recycle properly - so it has highlighted some recyclable items that are commonly overlooked.

Carpets 

Carpet Recycling UK recycles just two per cent of the 130,000 tonnes it processes annually.

Wool carpet is recycled by pulling the fibres which are then blended with other fibres to create suitable materials.

Roy Tyson's diorama

Bottle caps

In the UK 15 million plastic bottles are used every day, but only 20 per cent are recycled.

Lids are collected and sorted into plastic and metals. Metals are smelted so they may be recycled, and plastics undergo palletisation to be made into new, recycled plastic items. 

Steel

Steel scrap metal is collected and crushed in compactors, then shredded.  

The shredded metal is separated into ferrous and non-ferrous metals. Each metal is then melted down and poured into different moulds.

Clothing 

Clothing is an enormous problem - Brits throw away hundreds of thousands of tonnes of unwanted clothes each year. 

For recycling clothes, textiles are separated by colours and material to be shredded and cleaned. Some may be spun to make yarn while others will be compressed to make stuffing for furniture and other items.

Recycled household waste

To draw attention to the recycling crisis, RAJA partnered with artist Roy Tyson to build a diorama entirely of recyclable household waste – depicting an allotment scene.

His piece features an egg carton as its foundation, and he turned pen lids and bottle caps into plant boxes, and crayons into support systems.

Recently Hertfordshire's waste chief revealed nappies are the item most commonly sent for recycling that is NOT recyclable.

The Herts Waste Partnership runs a reusable nappy scheme that offers discounts on reusable nappies for families in the county.