What can I recycle in my green bin?
You can recycle:
Paper - newspapers, magazines, envelopes, junk mail, catalogues, telephone directories, Yellow Pages but not shredded paper.
Cardboard - cereal boxes, greeting cards, food packaging.
Plastic bottles - all types such as fizzy drink bottles, milk bottles, cleaning products, shampoo, shower gel. Please remove the lids and place these in your grey waste bin.
Cans - food and drink cans (both steel and aluminium) including drinks cans, food or soup cans and pet food cans.
We can now accept empty household aerosol cans such as deodorant, furniture polish, air freshener and hair spray. Please do not dispose of aerosols displaying a skull & crossbones logo, or a black cross on an orange background.
Please make sure your recycling is clean, dry and loose. This will make it easier to sort and keep your bin clean.
What items shouldn’t I put in my green bin?
Mixed plastic packaging such as yoghurt pots, margarine tubs, plastic food trays, at present there are limited facilities to recycle these items. Please put them in your grey waste bin.
Juice cartons - Tetra Pak cartons are difficult to recycle because they are mixture of plastic, foil and cardboard and there are no facilities to process them in the UK. Please put them in your grey waste bin.
Shredded paper - in order to process large amounts of material at our Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs) we use automatic sorting equipment which does not recognise very small or shredded pieces. Please put this in your home composter or your grey waste bin.
Aluminium foil – this is made from a different material to the aluminium in drinks cans and therefore has to be recycled separately. There are 11 aluminium foil banks in the borough. Find your nearest aluminium foil bank.
Food wrappers - although chocolate bar wrappers and crisp packets may say they are "foil wrapped", it is not foil. It is a type of plastic that cannot be recycled. The ‘scrunch’ test will help you – if it stays screwed up, it’s foil, but if it opens back out again, it’s plastic. Please put these items in your grey waste bin.
Plastic carrier bags – the lightweight nature of plastic bags means they often get caught in the conveyor belts at the Materials Recovery Facility. Please put them in your grey waste bin or in the carrier bag recycling bins at Tesco in Chineham or Sainsbury’s at Hatch Warren and Tadley.
Polystyrene and cellophane – there are no facilities to process these materials at present in the UK. Please put these in your grey waste bin. If you have a large quantity of polystyrene, please take this to the Household Waste Recycling Centre on Wade Road.
Glass - By the end of June 2012, the majority of households in the borough will have been provided with a plastic box so they can recycle their glass bottles and jars. All bottles and jars should be rinsed out and any corks or tops removed. The box should be placed next to the green recycling bin by 7am on their usual recycling collection day.
General household waste – this should be placed in your black bin or taken down to the Household Waste Recycling Centre on Wade Road.
Where is my nearest recycling site?
There are 75 recycling sites in the borough, where you can recycle a wide range of items, some of which we cannot collect from the kerbside. Find the nearest recycling site to you.
There is also the Household Waste Recycling Centre on Wade Road where you can recycle bulky household waste and other recyclable items, such as batteries and light bulbs
What happens to my recycling?
After collection, your recycling is taken to a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) where it is sorted. This is done using a combination of mechanical and manual sorting. The separated items are then sent to re-processors throughout the country to be made into new products. Find out more information about the MRF.
What should I do with large amounts of recyclable material?
If you regularly have more recyclables than will fit in your bin, we are happy to give you a second recycling bin. If you occasionally have some large items, for example cardboard boxes, which will not fit inside your recycling bin, please flatten them and place next to your recycling bin on collection day.
If you only have a small recycling bin (120 litres), you can request a larger 240 litre bin. Please contact the council to order one on 01256 844844.
Why don’t you collect yoghurt pots and other plastic packaging?
There are many different types of plastic and items such as yoghurt pots, margarine tubs, plastic food trays and carrier bags are very different from plastic bottles, which we can recycle.
There is no suitable market available for us to use in the UK at present. For this reason it is more sustainable for this waste to be processed at the Energy Recovery Facility in Chineham.
The type of plastic used to produce plastic bottles is different and there are markets in the UK for all types of plastic bottles. These are recycled into a range of items including fleece clothing and drainage pipes.
Why don’t you collect shredded paper?
We use a range of mechanical and manual sorting techniques to separate your recyclables from each other. This takes place at a Materials Recovery Facility. Due to the size of shredded paper, the machinery is unable to separate the shredded paper from the other items and it simply passes through the system and is disposed of. Shredded paper can be placed in your home composter or your grey waste bin.
Should I place the recycling in a bag?
No, all of your recycling should be placed into your bin clean, dry and loose. This makes it easy for us to sort. Any items that are wrapped in a plastic carrier bag or a black sack may be disposed of as waste.
Can I recycle plastic carrier bags?
These should not be placed in your green bin. Plastic bags can become tangled in the sorting machinery and can contaminate other recyclable items.
You can reuse your plastic bags the next time you go shopping or around the home, for example as bin bags. Larger supermarkets offer collection points for plastic bags, usually at the front of the store and they will then be recycled.
Why not consider buying a reusable 'bag for life'? These are now available from most shops. They are much more durable than carrier bags and will help reduce the amount of rubbish you produce.
How clean do the recycled materials have to be?
We ask you to rinse food cans out, perhaps using the water that you have washed your dishes in. There is no need for these containers to be thoroughly cleaned using fresh running water, the important thing is to remove any large amounts of food residues, which can contaminate the other recycling in your bin. Labels can be removed but it doesn’t matter if they aren’t, as this is part of the reprocessing stage.
What can I do if I have a large amount of cardboard?
Cardboard which should be flattened and all contents removed can be taken to the Household Waste Recycling Centre. Alternatively, flattened cardboard can be put out alongside your green bin on your usual collection day.
Where can I take glass bottles and jars?
There are over 75 recycling sites in the borough where you can take a wide range of recyclables, including glass bottles and jars; clothing and shoes; books; and, aluminium foil. Find out where your nearest recycling site is.
Some areas of the borough now receive a kerbside collection of glass, and this service will be rolled out to the rest of the borough during 2012.
What happens if I put the wrong items in my recycling bin?
Our crews try to check that recycling bins have not been contaminated with general waste, and may not collect recycling bins which are contaminated with non-recyclable items.
Contamination such as nappies, black sacks of waste, electrical items, can ruin the other recyclables in your green bin, and when it is sorted it could be dangerous to the people who sort the recyclables by hand. Putting items which can't be recycled into your green bin could lead to the rejection of an entire load of recycling
The green bin is for paper, card, tins and cans, aerosols and plastic bottles only. The grey bin is for all household waste and should not contain recyclables.
Recycling left in black sacks or carrier bags will not be collected - put recycling into your green bin clean, dry and loose.
Can I recycle my water filters?
Brita recycling bins can now be found at high street shops such as Argos, Robert Dyas and
Tesco. The bins take all Brita water filters including those for Brita jugs and the new water filter taps.
For more information on where to recycle your Brita water filters, contact Brita customer care on 0870 487 1000 or visit
www.brita.co.uk
You can post your Brita water filters back to the company at: Brita Recycling, FREEPOST NAT17876, Bicester, OX26 4BR.
Where can I buy products made from recycled materials?
Buying recycled products creates demand for recycled materials and helps to close the recycling loop. Click here for more information on recycled products.
What should I do with my garden waste?
Residents have a number of choices for composting their green garden waste. By using a home composter, residents can produce their own compost from grass cuttings, leaves, hedge clippings and kitchen waste. Cut-price home compost bins are available from Recycle Now.
Alternatively, residents can sign-up to the council's green garden waste collection service and we will do the composting for you. Find out about the council's garden waste collection service here.
Green garden waste can also be taken to the Household Waste Recycling Centre (HWRC) on Wade Road.
