Pledging to recycle items at home is the first step – but ensuring you do it correctly is the next. And sometimes, you just don’t know.

But we’re happy to be schooled. A recent post on a green living community page on Facebook, taught us that we can put used foil in the recycling box – but only if we do it this way.

“You can recycle aluminium foil but you can only do that if there is enough for the recycling processing machines to identify it and separate it,” the advice read.  

“So save your foil and when you’ve got a ball the size of a tennis ball or bigger, then put it in the recycling.”

The post has had more than 23,000 shares – which shows just how many people weren’t aware of the recycling hack. 

Recycle Now gives step-by-step instructions on how to do it properly:

• Rinse or wipe off any crumbs or food residue. To rinse, just dunk it in washing up water. 

• Scrunch kitchen foil (and tubs, pot lids and wrappers if you have them) together to form a ball – the bigger the ball, the easier it is to recycle.

If you’re unsure whether a shiny wrapper you have is aluminium foil or plastic film, do the scrunch test: scrunch the wrapper in your hand and if it springs back open, it’s not recyclable foil.