We all are familiar with the three R’s of environment. Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.
There are several movements and government initiatives as well that are aimed at making people understand the importance of reducing their carbon footprint and attempting to reuse non-recyclable objects.
This has helped in creating a nature-friendly environment wherein people are coming up with more initiatives and movements to help gather more ways to move towards a sustainable future. Thus, it is important to keep in mind the three R’s
One of the most important one of the three R’s is the process of recycling. With a new and booming industry coming up in the recycling field, it is becoming more and more popular.
Some of the easiest things to recycle include daily items like paper, old clothing, plastic cans, bottles, boxes, etc.
However, when it comes to most other types of solids like metals or cases, people are often dubious about whether they can be utilized again or have to be thrown away at once.
Thus, in this article, we would learn about how you can recycle the popular Altoids can and whether it is recyclable at all.
What Is an Altoids Tin?
An Altoids can quite easily be understood as a box of peppermint chewable eatables. They are popular worldwide and were first produced in London in the late 18th century. The mints are so popular that their packaging has not changed much over the years.
Even to this day, the Altoids come in a unique tin-designed box. They are eatable lozenges that people love to pop now and then to get stomach relief and get a fresher breath and taste in their mouth.
Today, you may find several flavors of Altoids like peppermint, ginger, cinnamon, strawberry, etc. They also produce gums, stripes, and sour candies.
Are Altoids Tins Recyclable?
The unique tin box for Altoids is popular for reuse by many. You might spot some of these very easily in a few households wherein they are used to store small items and collectibles.
Often, people take these with them while traveling to keep some important medicines or pieces of jewelry as well. Hence, Altoids tins are very easily recyclable and in fact, are a popular recycled product that people use.
Most environment-conscious people wonder whether Altoids cans are environmentally friendly or not. The easy answer to this is perhaps not.
The tins use steel, which may take more than a hundred years to decompose properly. Thus, the only best thing you can do for these tins is to recycle them or reuse them.
They are certainly non-biodegradable as they cannot be thrown in wet waste or compost pits, they must be utilized or used for reconstruction.
The forceful burning or throwing of Altoids tins can lead to the production of toxic waste or contaminants, which are not good for the environment.
How Do you Recycle an Altoids Tin?
The proper method while throwing an Altoids tin to the recycling bin is to remove any extra packaging and plastic covering it may be having and then throw it individually in the bin.
This helps in ensuring that when it reaches the recycling factories, they can easily carry on the work and don’t have to remove it at this stage.
In case you have any doubts about recycling your Altoids tin, you can simply call your waste management factories or recycling agencies to clarify it.
However, most households choose to upcycle or reuse their Altoids tins. Let us see how you can do that too.
Since these are extremely portable and safe, you can keep any of your tiny valuables inside, so that you do not lose them. You can also use them to store rubber bands, keys, and ornaments.
Some other lesser-known methods to reuse the Altoids tin is by turning it into a first aid kit and putting different categories of medicines, cotton, and band-aids in different tin boxes of Altoids.
You can also use it to store office supplies or the waste from sharpening your pencils and other stationery items if you are an artist or go to school/college. It can help you keep them organized and in one place.
Have you ever wondered how you can ensure that you don’t lose out on board game pieces? You can easily store them inside the Altoids tin so that they are safe with you. You can also store cards and dice inside.
They can also be used to store keys and other safety equipment. No one could think that you would store such a thing in the Altoids tins.
If you are into having collectibles, you can use the tin to keep sea shells, beads, post stamps, and other rare currencies that you come across.
You can not only keep them safe and sound in these but also ensure that you don’t lose out on them easily.
You can also store paperclips, do mini art inside the tins and resell them. In case one of your friends or family members has their birthday coming up, you can even redesign and pack this tin and gift them.
One of the most forgettable electronic devices is your earbuds or USB drives. It is very easy to misplace them, and hence, it is useful to utilize the tins to store these.
If you are into microengineering and making handy devices, you can even make a portable camera or mirror out of Altoids tin.
Conclusion
We all have at some point in life tasted the classic Altoids mint lozenges.
They are so popular that every other house has one of the tins still preserved. These tins are reused domestically by a lot of people.
However, they can also be easily recycled by waste management companies and local bodies. So, you do not have to throw them around with the normal household waste, instead, put them in a recycle bin.
In case you do not wish to do so, you can reuse them or design them further to create something new and sell it further or gift someone close to you.
