From meat trays to wine corks: which bin does your barbecue waste belong in?

Summer means barbecue season is in full swing. But once the last steak or veggie sausage comes off the grill, questions often arise during clean-up: can meat trays go in the recycling bag? What should be done with dirty disposable cardboard plates, and where do bottles of barbecue lighter fluid belong? Every year, a lot of barbecue waste — sometimes even hazardous waste — ends up in the wrong bin. Fost Plus, the organisation that coordinates the recycling and reuse of household packaging in Belgium, lists a few key sorting tips for a carefree, mistake-free barbecue summer.

1. Empty sauce bottles, plastic bags and foam trays first

After a barbecue, quite a few types of packaging are left over: meat trays, vegetable or salad bags, drink cans, tin cans, foam trays and sauce bottles. All of these can go straight into the recycling bag without any problem. But keep one important rule in mind: packaging should always be empty before you throw it away.

Valerie Bruyninckx, spokesperson for Fost Plus, explains: “No need to worry: you don't have to wash or rinse packaging thoroughly, but do scrape any leftover food out of trays, squeeze sauce bottles empty, and pour out any leftover liquid from drink packaging. Because if too much food residue is left behind, the packaging may not get recycled. There's a technical reason for this: at a certain point in the sorting process, packaging is 'shot' using compressed air to get it onto the line for the right material. That compressed-air machine is calibrated for empty — and therefore light — packaging. If there's still too much leftover material inside, the packaging may not end up in the right recycling stream.”

2. Watch out for bottles of barbecue lighter fluid

For the recycling bag, the basic rule is simple: is it empty packaging made of plastic, metal, or drink carton? Then it goes in the recycling bag. But there's one important exception that often comes up during barbecue season.

Bruyninckx warns: “One of the biggest sorting mistakes you can make is disposing of hazardous waste incorrectly. At a barbecue, that typically means a bottle of lighter fluid. That packaging always belongs with the Hazardous Waste, even when it's empty. So keep it separate and bring it along on your next visit to the recycling park. Because if that kind of packaging does end up in the recycling bag, it creates a fire risk when it's processed at the sorting facility. Even an empty package can still contain flammable vapours, which may create a fire hazard when the packaging passes through the sorting facility. You can recognise this hazardous packaging by the logo printed on it, as well as by its child-safe push-and-turn cap.”

3. Disposable cardboard plates should not be thrown away with paper and cardboard waste

A classic sorting mistake during barbecue season involves used disposable cardboard plates. They actually don't belong with the paper and cardboad waste — but unfortunately, they often end up there anyway.

“Used disposable cardboard plates belong in the residual waste. Although they are made of cardboard, they are usually too contaminated with grease and food residue to be recycled. Paper and cardboard should always be clean and dry, as food residues contaminate the water used in the recycling process and reduce the quality of the recycled paper,” says the Fost Plus spokesperson.

4. Don't stack pots inside one another

Plastic pots can of course go in the recycling bag. But throw them in loose, not stacked inside each other. Because if you nest several pots together, the combined weight becomes too heavy to be sorted correctly. The cause is the same as with packaging that hasn't been emptied: the compressed-air sorting machine isn't calibrated for that weight.

5. Keep wine corks separate

A barbecue can also come with a good glass of wine. But watch out: traditional wine corks don't belong in the recycling bag or with residual waste, since they're recycled through a separate stream.

Bruyninckx: “If there's a collection point nearby — for example at the recycling park or at a participating retailer — it's best to drop them off there. That way they can be processed into new products. Plastic corks, metal crown caps and the wire cage used on sparkling wine bottles are accepted in the the recycling bag.”

^{About Fost Plus}

^{Since 1994, Fost Plus has been accelerating the transition to sustainable packaging management. Citizens are at the heart of an approach designed to prevent raw materials from ending up as waste. For instance, Fost Plus is setting up efficient structures to sort correctly any time, anywhere, improving packaging design with around 5,000 members with a view to better recycling, and rethinking the way we all handle packaging and other materials.}

^{Fost Plus works closely with citizens, businesses, governments and experts to collect and recycle the household packaging put on the market by its members. In this way, the organisation fulfils its members’ Extended Producer Responsibility. Sixty dedicated colleagues are committed to influencing behaviour so as to minimise the environmental impact of our ways of producing and consuming. By building sustainable material chains, Fost Plus contributes to a better society and a cleaner environment for all.}