We’ve all seen the images of oceans awash with plastic bags and bottles, and of course we want to do the right thing when it comes to looking after the environment. But despite our good intentions, sometimes we still get it wrong.

Here are five common mistakes we make with recycling and how to can avoid them:

1. Thinking that you can’t recycle ice cream wrappers, bread bags, biscuit wrappers, pasta bags and old green bags.
   Did you know that you can recycle soft plastics such as bread bags, frozen food and veggie bags, biscuit wrappers and cereal wrappers? Well, you can, but just not in your kerbside-recycling bin. A good test of what soft plastic can be recycled is whether you can scrunch it into a ball. Keep your dry and empty wrappers and drop them into your nearest REDCycle recycling bin. REDCycle’s website also has a complete list of what soft plastics can and can’t be recycled.

2. Putting dirty containers in your recycling bin
   Items that have bits of food in or on them generally can’t be recycled. This means giving bottles and cans a quick rinse under a tap to ensure they are clean and empty. If you order in a pizza, just recycle the part that is free from grease or food residue.

3. Putting plastic bags in your recycling bin
   Planet Ark conducted research in 115 different council areas in Australia and found that plastic bags in recycling bins was a big problem for 92 per cent of local councils.

Recycling facilities can’t cope with plastic bags of any kind, so if you can, avoid using them and if you absolutely have to use them, take the used bags to your local REDCycle recycling centre.

4. Not putting aluminium foil in recycling
   Yes, you can recycle clean aluminium foil, and this includes the (rinsed) lids of your cream, yoghurt and even chocolate wrappings. Just make sure you scrunch them all into a ball so the individual pieces don’t fly away in the sorting line. The same goes for beer bottle tops. Store them in a tin can and then close the lid and put them all in your recycling bin, as individual bottle tops are likely to be too small to be processed.

5. Thinking Aerosol cans will explode if you put them in recycling
   They won’t as long as they are empty. If you can, remove the plastic parts (being careful not to pierce the bottle) and put the rest of the can into your recycling bin. Aerosol cans are made from steel and aluminium and most council depots can process them.