Do the bricks go to the yellow bucket?

Bricks or tetra-bricks are one of the containers that generate the most doubts when we have to recycle. If we take into account that they are used for a multitude of products and that every day tons of waste are generated only with the bricks, it is very important to locate them well to be able to recycle them to the maximum.

Yellow is often said to be the container for plastic, which is not true. The yellow is the container for packaging . Since the bricks are a container, the bricks go to the yellow bucket . Although at first we can believe that the bricks are made of cardboard, the reality is that they are covered, both inside and outside, by a layer of plastic that makes them waterproof.

The yellow container is intended for recycling plastic containers that are part of our daily life. By recycling them, we allow these materials to be reused, giving them new lives, a perfect way to conserve the environment and reduce the exploitation of our resources.

With that said, you should be aware of what gets thrown in the yellow bin :

• Plastic bottles, such as water, detergent, or soda bottles.
• Plastic containers, such as yogurt or cocoa cream containers.
• The plastic wrap with which certain foods are wrapped to preserve them.
• The cans, whether they are soft drinks or canned goods.
• The plates of the glass bottles.

As we have already explained in previous sections, the yellow container is not the container for plastic or, rather, it is not the container for all plastics. We have just explained what is thrown away in the yellow container, however, just as or more important are those things that you should not throw there, either because they cannot be recycled or because they should be thrown away in other containers.

As you surely know, in the green container we throw the glass, in the blue one the paper and cardboard, while the organic waste goes to the brown container. But not everything that does not fall into these categories will go to the yellow container, what you should not throw there are:

• Sanitary products such as used gloves, bottles or diapers.
• Toys, even if they are made of plastic.
• Mobile phones or household appliances even if they are made of plastic.
• Old glasses or used contact lenses.
• Plastic containers that have contained toxic or potentially dangerous products such as medicines, paint or fuel containers.
• Plastic hangers or any other product.

The reality is that there is no single method of recycling tetrabricks, but depending on the recycling plant they can use one or the other. However, this is how the two main methods are how a tetrabrick is recycled :

• Mechanical stirring : it is usually the most used method, it involves putting the tetrabricks in large tanks filled with water. In turn, this content is agitated mechanically, causing the components of the container to separate. On the one hand the cardboard comes out, which is more than 70% of the brick, on the other hand the polyethylene, which can be 20%, finally the aluminum, which borders 5% of the total container. Cardboard is mainly recycled, which can be turned into Kraft paper, while the others are not so common. Still, polyethylene can be used as fuel.
• Shredding and ironing : the other form of recycling used for tetrabricks is shredding and subsequent spreading on plates. There, after heating and pressing it, sheets very similar to those of conglomerate wood are obtained.
  

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