These are a few of the most frequently asked questions that the
council receives from residents about recycling. We hope that the answers
below will help, but if there is still something you are unsure about please contact us on (01256) 844844 or
recycling@basingstoke.gov.uk
If you have a question on waste and recycling which isn't on the list, please let us know what it is at recycling@basingstoke.gov.uk
Recycling FAQs
General FAQs
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 a fizzy drink bottles, milk bottles, cleaning products,
shampoo, shower gel. Please remove the lids and place these in your black refuse bin.
Cans - food and drink cans (both steel and aluminium) incl. 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 include 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.
We cannot collect:
mixed plastic packaging such as yoghurt pots, margarine tubs, plastic food trays, etc -
at present there are limited facilities to recycle these items in the UK. Please place them in your black rubbish 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 place them in your black rubbish bin.
shredded paper - in order to process such a large amount of material at our Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs) we use a lot of automatic sorting equipment which recognises different types of material but not very small or shredded pieces. Please place this in your home composter or your black rubbish bin.
aluminium foil – this is made from a different metal alloy to the aluminium in drinks cans and therefore has to be recycled separately. There are 11 aluminium foil banks in the Borough. Click here to find your nearest one.
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 place these items in your black refuse bin.
plastic carrier bags – unfortunately the lightweight nature of plastic bags means they often get caught in the conveyor belts at the Materials Recovery Facility where your recyclables are sorted. Please place them in your black rubbish bin or in the carrier bag recycling bins at Tesco's in Chineham or Sainsbury’s at Hatch Warren and Tadley. The material from these bins is sent straight to a reprocessor and is not sorted through a MRF.
polystyrene and cellophane – unfortunately there are no facilities to process these materials at present in the UK. Please place these in your black rubbish bin. If you have a large quantity of polystyrene, please take this to the Household Waste Recycling Centre on Wade Road.
glass - currently, the Materials Recycling Facility near Alton can not accept glass for safety reasons as recyclables are hand sorted and glass can break and contaminate the rest of the recyclable materials. Glass can be recycled at one of over 75 recycling sites in Borough. Click here to find your nearest recycling sites.
general household waste – this should be placed in your black bin or taken down to the Household Waste Recycling Centre on Wade Road.
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.
Click here to 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.
Click here for more information.
After collection, your recycling is taken to a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) near Alton 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. For more information about the MRF please click here.
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 also request a larger 240 litre bin. Please contact the council to order one on 01256 844844.
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.
The only market for these mixed plastic exists in Asia and due to the lightweight, bulky nature of these materials it would very damaging to the environment to transport them over such a large distance.
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.
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 near Alton. 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 black rubbish bin. Please do not place shredded paper in any of the blue and yellow bins at our recycling sites. The materials in these bins are also taken to the Alton MRF and should therefore be used in the same way as your kerbside bin.
No, all of your recycling should be placed into your bin clean, dry and loose. This makes it easy for us to sort at the Materials Recovery Facility. Any items that are wrapped in a plastic carrier bag or a black sack may be disposed of as waste.
These should not be placed in your green bin. Plastic bags can become tangled in the machinery that we use to sort your recycling, and can contaminate other recyclable items.
You may like to re-use 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, where you can deposit your bags and they will then be recycled.
The best thing is to consider buying a reusable 'bag for life', which are now available at most retail outlets. These are much more durable than carrier bags and will help reduce the amount of rubbish you produce.
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.
There is a skip at the Household Waste Recycling Centre on Wade Road for cardboard, which should be flattened and all contents removed. Alternatively, flattened cardboard can be put out alongside your green bin on your usual collection day.
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. To find your nearest bring site, please click here.
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, subject to final approval.
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, etc., 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 black bin is for all household waste and should not contain recyclables.
Recycling left in black sacks or plastic carrier bags will not be collected - please place recycling into your green bin clean, dry and loose.
You can recycle Brita water filters by posting them back to the company at:
BRITA RECYCLING, FREEPOST NAT17876, Bicester, OX26 4BR.
Buying recycled products creates demand for recycled materials and helps to “close the recycling loop.” Click here for more information on recycled products.
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. Please click here for information on prices.
Alternatively, residents can sign-up to the council's Green Garden Waste Collection service and we will do the composting for you. Please click here for more information.
Green garden waste can also be taken to the Household Waste Recycling Centre (HWRC) on Wade Road, where there is a skip for this material. Please click here for more information on the HWRC.
Your rubbish and recycling bin should be placed on the edge of your property by 7am on the day of collection. To find out when your bin should be picked up, please ring the council on 01256 844844 or click here.
Sometimes after collection, your bin may have been returned further down your street. If you cannot find your bin, please call the council on 01256 844844. We recommend that people mark their bin with their house number to ensure they know which bin is theirs.
My bin/sack wasn’t emptied. Can you come back and pick it up?
We have developed an online form for residents to report missed bin collection. Please click here to report a missed collection. Alternatively, please call the council on 01256 844844.
No, we do not offer this service. You can either clean the bin yourself using a long handled brush and some soapy water or find a private company by looking in your local telephone directory.
The Council provides an assisted collection for residents who are unable to put their bin/sack out for collection due to disability or infirmity. Please ring the council on 01256 844844 to request this service.
