What is recycled in the gray container

The gray container is the oldest of all the garbage containers in existence, and in fact, it is the garbage container that existed before recycling programs were implemented that cataloged garbage by color to facilitate its subsequent recycling. In fact, even today, many people consider that in the gray container everything should be thrown that simply does not go in the other containers.

This is a mistake, since there are certain types of garbage that are not thrown into any of the containers (including the gray one), but must be taken to a specific container or directly to a clean point. Two good examples of this type of garbage could be batteries or used cooking oil, two highly polluting garbage that are not thrown into any of the garbage cans at home, since they do not have color-cataloged containers located on the road. rather, they are specific and less numerous containers.

In this way, when it comes to the garbage that must be thrown into the gray container , it can broadly be said that it is mainly biodegradable matter or that it cannot be recycled (it must be taken to an incinerator to manage it as efficiently possible). In this sense, we can talk about food or plant remains, but also other products such as dust and hair collected by the vacuum cleaner, waste from domestic animals, cigarette butts, cork stoppers, or Disposable hygiene-related products, such as diapers or pads.

Any garbage that is thrown into a container must be managed correctly , which means that you should try to recycle as much of the material as possible. This also includes the protocols of each municipality, since there are some that have more resources to carry out higher quality recycling than others.

However, despite this, there are some types of garbage that cannot currently be recycled . These wastes are the ones that will finally be taken to landfills or incinerators, where they will be burned to reduce their volume as much as possible and be used as fuel to produce energy, with its consequent impact on the environment both in one case and the other. . In this way, it is true that the garbage in the gray container is recycled as far as possible . However, it is a recycling that is not as efficient as it is in the cases of the blue, green and yellow containers.

Although it is not yet a container that is very popular, more and more municipalities are implementing the creation of a new container for organic waste . The color of this container varies according to the localities, but the most common are brown and orange. These containers are called to separate one of the garbage that, until now, was destined to be thrown into the gray container: organic matter.

The great advantage of separating the organic matter from the rest of the garbage in the gray container is that it can be better used, mainly as compost or in the production of biomass . In both cases, this implies a lower impact on the environment than when it is abandoned in landfills or taken to incinerators, since its transformation and subsequent use is more efficient, since it does not suffer any type of chemical contamination when in contact with the other types of trash that end up in the gray bin. This makes it a proposal that, little by little, will become more common in most of the town halls of many municipalities until, finally, it becomes a new container as common as the others to which we are already accustomed.

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