Recycling 101: What Happens After You Return Your Bottles To East Hills

Recycling your empty bottles has many positive impacts on preserving our environment. By returning your empty beverage containers to East Hills Bottle Depot, you can earn money and be an environmental hero. Have you ever wondered what happens to your bottles after you leave them at our Depot? 

Read on to find out about the recycling lifecycle! 

Sorting and Pickup

You may notice that we sort all of the different bottles, containers, glass, and cans into different bins. This is so they are easily transported by a truck to a material recovery factory where they are all further sorted by colour, type, and material. 

Aluminum Cans and Containers 

When aluminum cans aren’t recycled, they are extremely destructive to the environment and leave pieces of aluminum that pollute our air, water, and environment. Whether it’s a locally handcrafted beer or a refreshing pop, we all go through lots of cans on a daily basis, which is why we need to do our part to look after the environment.

At East Hills Bottle Depot, your aluminum cans are transported to the recovery factory where they are baled and shredded into tiny pieces where their paint and coatings are removed. These tiny pieces are melted and cast down into ingots – blocks of steel – which are flattened down into coils. These new coils can be remade into new cans, airplane parts and used to make parts on bicycles! 

Glass Bottles

It can take a lot of resources to make glass from scratch which is another great reason why we should be recycling our old glass containers and bottles! When they are picked up and returned to the recovery factory, the glass is crushed into tiny pieces to make new glass bottles and containers. Did you know that this glass can also be used for countertops, sand roads, help with construction projects and home renovations? 

Plastic Bottles 

Plastic bottles are one of the most common items littering our planet. Since they are made with petroleum, which is a non-renewable resource, they end up hurting the environment the most. There are also two different types of plastic bottle containers. 

The first type of plastic bottle is PET, which includes pop and water bottles. The second type of plastic bottle is HDPE, which includes juice containers. 

These bottles are washed, chopped up and sorted using a flotation process which allows the pieces to be melted down to be used over again. The pieces that have become melted down are transformed into fibres which can be turned into jackets, chairs, new bottles, and carpet. 

There are so many opportunities that recyclables have to be reused into new things and it all starts by returning your empties to East Hills Bottle Depot! 

Share with us how you contribute to the recycling lifecycle story, and follow us on social media to keep up on the latest trends with the East Hills Hype on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram!