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Plastic packages

Is it packaging? Is it made of plastic? Great, then put it into the container for plastic packaging!

Sort following empty and dry plastic packaging from households to collection for plastic packages; Plastic food packaging (e.g. yoghurt cups, butter tubs, cheese packaging and ready-meal trays), detergent, shampoo, and soap packaging, other household packaging (e.g. plastic bottles, cans, jars, tubes, packaging for toys, tools, garden, and fishing gear etc.), plastic bags and wrappers, EPS or Styrofoam packaging. If possible, please flatten the package.

How to Do It:

Plastic packages must be empty and dry. They must not contain any food or other residue. Drain the packaging to make sure it is dry. You could easily clean the packaging for example with a small piece of paper towel to get rid of the most noticeable residue. If the package smells bad, it can be sorted as mixed waste (combustible waste). As a rule of thumb, packaging should be clean enough to be stored at home for a few days without a notable smell.

Remove caps, lids and pump parts and sort them separately. These parts are often made of different plastic than the rest of the packaging. Do not nest plastic packages unless you are sure it is the same sort of plastic. Flatten the packages, if possible.

What Should Not be Sorted as Plastic Packages?

Toys, sledges, watering cans, candle holders and other plastic items that are not packages are sorted as mixed waste (combustible waste). Packages that are dirty or contain residues of hazardous waste must not be sorted as plastic.

What Happens to All the Plastic Packages?

Plastic packaging sorted by households saves energy in the production of plastic and reduces the need to use oil. Some of the plastic packaging waste collected from consumers is delivered to Fortum Plastic Refinery in Riihimäki and some to a processing plant in Denmark and Sweden.

At the refinery, plastic packaging waste is sorted, cleaned and the part suitable for recycling is made into plastic granules that will serve as raw material for new plastic products. Non-recyclable plastic can be used with mixed waste as fuel at waste-to-energy plants. To ensure that plastic packaging is recycled appropriately, it is important that the plastic packaging waste returned to the ecopoints is carefully sorted according to the sorting instructions.

Recycled plastic is turned into, for example:

  • various consumer goods, such as dish brushes, toilet brushes and clothes brushes, shoehorns, flower pots, watering cans, spray bottles
  • furniture such as chair components
  • various plastic bags and rubbish bags, recycled plastic bags for shops
  • items used in construction, such as apparatus box covers

Where Can I Take Plastic Packages?

If you live in a high-rise building or row house with at least five homes, the housing company must have its own container for plastic recycling. Plastic packages are also received at all waste reception stations.

You can take plastic packages to the following Ecopoints:

  • Isokyrö S-Market
  • Korsnäs Sale
  • Maalahti Köpings S-Market
  • Mustasaari Sale Raippaluoto
  • Mustasaari Sale Koivulahti
  • Mustasaari Sepänkylän NS-talo
  • Mustasaari Sulvan Nuorisoseura
  • Vaasa Citymarket Kivihaka
  • Vaasa K-Market Sundom
  • Vaasa Lidl Melaniemi
  • Vaasa S-Market Gerby
  • Vaasa S-Market Ristinummi
  • Vaasa Prisma Liisanlehto
  • Vaasa Prisma Kotiranta
  • Vaasa Vikingan venesatama ecopoint
  • Vaasa Vähäkyrö Urheilupolku ecopoint
  • Vöyri ABC Oravainen
  • Vöyri Sale Maksamaa
  • Vöyri S-Market

Click here for more information about plastic packaging recycling and FAQ’s on Rinki website.

Sorting instructions for plastic packages in Ukrainian.

All waste types