Recycle Map

Welcome to the Recycle Map

The purpose of the Recycle Map is to inform the general public about recycling and to provide a thorough overview of the recycling centers for each waste category. There is no longer any excuse for not sorting your waste for recycling. 

Service

Address:
The Recycle Map presents information on which services are available in your neighborhood, within a radius from 100 meters up to 100 kilometers. Location is selected according to the address you type in or found location of your computer, smartphone or pad. You can also drag the pointer to another location to see services within selected radius elsewhere in the country.

Bin Service:
By typing the name of the municipality it appears outlined on the map plus you'll see information on available bin services listed.

Containers and Services:
If you know the name of a service station type it in. That can be helpful if you want to know it's correct location or what recycelables it accepts.

You can also click on the container and service station symbols and see where all of them are located. The categories are: Service Center, Drop-Off Center, Container and Deposit Return. Access further information by cllicking on the icons. If you click on the icons on the map itself, name and address appear and by clicking further you'll see the service provider and all categories accepted at that particular station.

You can choose between several kinds of maps by clicking on the button on the right on top of the map.

Categories

To make the access to what you are looking for as easy as possible we sort the recycling categories into 12 main categories. They are: Plastic, Poison, Bottles & Cans, Glass, Yard Waste, Compost, Clothes, Metals, Household, Cars, Electrical and Paper. In each of those categories are the sorting categories with icons and names. The information is organized according to the the Fenúr labels (green icons) and according Nature's side categories (black and white icons). Details appear at the right hand side when you click on the categories and shows you which recycling centers accept particular categories, both listed and on the map.

Recycle Maps for the municipalities

All municipalities in Iceland can partake in a collaborative effort with Nature.is to offer their inhabitants a complete information package through their own Recycle Map on the municipalities official website.

The municipality Recycle Maps offer the following services:

• A complete information package on the recycling- and waste services within the community s.s.; bins, sorting counters, service centers and accepted categories .
• Collection calendar connected to addresses af persons and companies which again connect to routing to the next service station and weather warnings on the route.
• Subscription to iCal og Google calendars.
• Questions and answers system.
• Service phone 483 1500.
• A l ink to the Recycle Map – Iceland.
• An Icelandic and an English version.

Sponsors

Sponsors of the Recycle Map from the start:
Ministry for the Environment and Natural Resources and SORPA bs.

Sponsors of the Recycle Map App developed in 2012:
Ministry for the Environment and Natural Resources, SORPA bs., Environment Fund of Landsbankinn, The Icelandic Recycling Fund, The City of Reykjavík, Gámaþjónustan hf. and Sorpstöð Suðurlands bs.

Sponsors of the Recycle Map's new editiion developed in 2014:
Ministry for the Environment and Natural Resources, SORPA bs. and The Icelandic Recycling Fund.

Recycle Map – Iceland. Producer Nature is Ltd. 2008-2015. The Recycle Map (Endurvinnslukortið™) is a  registered Trade Mark of Nature is Ltd. ©Nature is Ltd. 2015. All rights reserved.

Composting

Household waste can be reduced by 30-35% by composting. Valuable fertilizing compost is made from garden waste and leftover vegetables and fruit (meat excluded).The transformation from waste into compost surely  takes some months, even years depending on the method used (and the climate). However, for those who have a garden and/or a compost bin, composting can be enjoyable and a fun way to reduce waste.

In Iceland gathering organic waste will become mandatory step by step and that is why brown bins for organic waste are being introduced in many communities. Other solutions are to have an ordinary waste bin, with a separate container for organic waste and a small organic waste bucket.

You can also compost leftovers yourself. If you have enough space for a composting bin, you should make an effort and try it. Composting makes you conscious of how much food is actually being wasted in your household. Figures show that about half of the World´s food production is thrown away at one time or another. Wasting food is thus an enormous problem, and an expensive one for us and for our planet.

The composting bin accepts all organic waste, except meat leftovers and fish.

For optimum composting, the compost has to be kept sufficiently moist and it is a good idea to use newspapers and garden waste in order to improve the compost. A homemade wooden composting tray can be used, and also plastic composting bins are available. Composting methods differ slightly according to the type of container being used.

Finally everything decomposes and a valuable fertilizing compost is produced. An open air compost takes about 3 years, but in a composting bin, the process can take a few months. There is almost no chance of anything going wrong when composting. It is a natural process which takes pretty much care of itself.

Why recycle?

The World´s natural resources are being depleted at a high rate because of population growth and consumption. As population grows exponentially (has now reached 7 billion), the consumption of raw materials grows exponentially as well. Exponential growth of raw material consumption on a planet of finite land area can simply not go on forever.

One day humanity will reach the general peak of maximum production. This maximum production peak has for instance, already been reached in the production and mining of gold (year 2000), phosphate (2000) and oil (2005). We are getting closer to the peak of maximum production for most other chemicals, even for iron within 40 years. The peak for lead will be reached in 2020, iron, silver, zinc and platinum in 2030, for copper in 2040 and for nickel, chromium and indium in year 2050.

Maximum production peak indicates that 50% of the material has been processed. If continued, our modern and technical society will not have access to materials upon which it is dependent. The only way to improve the use is to shut the material cycles by recycling every material. Waste is therefore not garbage, but raw material for reprocessing  and recycling in nature or inside the industries themselves. If we manage to reuse up to 98% of these materials, and if population growth can be reduced, then all chemicals can last for thousands of years, even tens of thousands of years.

When maximum production has been reached, half of the material is still left, but as demand exceeds supply the price goes up. The only means of extending the life of raw materials is by recycling. This is why we all have to work together as a team and recycle our waste. By combined efforts we can achieve great results.

Source:
Ragnarsdóttir K.V., Sverdrup H.U. and Koca D. (2012) Assessing Long Term Sustainability of Global Supply of Natural Resources and Materials. In C. Ghenai (ed.) Sustainable Development: Energy, Engineering and Technologies, Manufacturing and the Environment. Intechweb Publishers (www.intechweb.org).
Obtainable at: http://www.intechopen.com/books/sustainable-development-energy-engineering-and-technologies-manufacturing-and-environment/rare-metals-burnoff-rates-versus-system-dynamics-of-metal-sustainability.

How to sort?

We need space. We want to dance on our floors and to move around in our apartments. This is especially important here in Iceland where people spend much of their time indoors, and are unable to spend time outdoors for long periods.

Our homes may be full of unnecessary stuff. If you haven´t used something for the last 12 months, it is unlikely that you actually need it. Maybe it is  time to tidy up and get rid of unnecessary junk. Then it is a great idea not to purchase more junk, and  try to organize the shopping so it does not get out of hand.

What is waste for you, may be of value to someone else. Books can be donated to the town library and metals in our computers can be reused. The world of recycling is a world we are just beginning to discover. It is a remarkable world, where nothing is thrown away, but given new value. The first step is to sort waste within the household, and the whole family should participate.

We advise you to find out which waste categories are accepted in your municipality, since not all waste categories are everywhere in function.

In some municipalities you can get the Blue bin, that is for paper, the Recycling bin and/or the Green bin for mixed categories, such as paper, metals and plastics, but this service does cost, it may be optional in some municipalities and mandatory in others.

Start by sorting newspapers, admail, envelopes etc., put them in a bin or a bag for later delivery to a drop-off center or a recycling center. Paper cartons should be rinsed, folded and disposed of along with the paper. Then start by adding more categories, one by one.

For sorting to succeed, it is feasible to make or to buy  containers for the various waste categories. They can be placed in the laundry room, common area or in the garage. If you live in an apartment building, call a meeting and try to get as many as possible to share containers and participate.

Packaging with deposit, such as disposable beverage containers made of glass, aluminum and plastic, are valuables which everyone should recycle. Recycling Ltd. collects such containers all over the country and pays 16 ISK for each packaging.

Batteries are collected at hazardous waste depots (Efnamóttakan) into special containers and can also be disposed of at N1 and Shell gas stations. Hazardous chemicals are to be delivered in closed containers to recycling stations. Care has to be taken to store disintegrating and corroding chemicals in appropriate containers, as they may disintegrate  glass or plastics. The best option is to store hazardous chemicals in original containers.

Information about all recycling categories is accessible on our Recycle Map and Recycle Map App. The information is organized according to the the Fenúr labels (green icons) and according to side categories (black and white icons).