Set up a recycling corner in your home

It is a good idea to plan your home’s recycling points well and based on your own habits. Once you have allowed the right amount of space for each material, sorting takes very little effort in your everyday life and waste gets recovered for new uses.

Most homes generate at least the following materials that can be recycled:

- paper and cardboard
- glass
- metal
- plastic
- biowaste
- hazardous substances
- clothes
- other recyclable items.

There are many different sizes of recycling containers intended for the space under the kitchen sink. Rental homes usually come with at least two under-sink waste containers. If there is no room in the under-sink cabinet for more waste containers, you can organise space for glass and metal in the cabinet next to it or in the cleaning cupboard.

You can allocate a box or plastic basket for the different materials and line them with a bag that is easy to grab along when you go out.

You can also put some of the recycling containers somewhere else than behind closed cabinet doors. Various types of baskets, containers and boxes are available in a multitude of styles and sizes – with or without a lid. It makes sense to place recycling containers in your home close to where the waste is created. This makes it easy to slip the materials into their own container right away.

Luckily most housing companies have a collection point for sorted waste, making recycling so much easier. In the area covered by the Helsinki Region Environmental Services Authority (HSY), all housing companies will soon have a sorting container not only for mixed waste but also at least for biowaste and, in housing companies with more than five apartments, also for cardboard, plastic, glass and metal. Paper collection takes place in accordance with the Waste Act.

You can also allocate a spot in your wardrobe or walk-in closet for textiles to be recycled. It also makes sense to divide textiles into those that are broken and those that are still usable. You can take textiles that are in good condition to clothing collection points or flea markets and ones that are not to a Sortti Station or mixed waste. To read more, visit sites such as HSY.

It makes sense to put clothes that you no longer intend to use straight into the recycling pile.

It helps if you have one clear spot in your home where you will always put any items that you are planning to donate to a charity or sell at a flea market. This way your wardrobes stay tidy and never get too cluttered and you will not need to do any major wardrobe clearing operations. Weather permitting, you can organise a flea market outside your building with the other residents.

If flea markets are not your thing, unbroken clothes and other items are accepted in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area by the Reuse Centres, for example. Other large cities such as Tampere, Oulu and Turku also have Reuse Centres. See the Reuse Centre website for Centres around Finland.

Recycling is easy once you get used to it. It is best to choose recycling containers that can also be cleaned. To keep your home fresh and airy, take the sorted materials out often enough.

Functional recycling containers can also look good in addition to being easy to keep clean. The top picture shows the Everyday Design bag holder and the strong Le Sac en Papier paper bag, both of which are great for collecting paper or cardboard. For biowaste, it is best to choose a washable container with a lid. The plastic collection boxes and the metal biowaste container are from Granit, you can find the Everyday Design paper bag holder from stores including Finnish Design Shop, while the Le Sac en Papier paper bag and the fabric bag are the stylist’s own props.

This article was originally published in Finnish in 2016 and translated into English in 2023.