Recycling Bin

Recycling in Basingstoke and Deane is something everyone can do. The Council provides a kerbside collection for all residents using a green wheelie bin. If you live in a flat you will have a larger, shared recycling bin.

The easiest way to recycle is to sort out the different items which can be recycled from those that can't. Many people have two bins in their kitchen - one for recycling and one for rubbish!

After you have sorted your recycling, all you need to do is place the clean and dry material loose into your recycling bin and put it out for collection by 7am on your collection day.

If you do not have a green recycling bin, or need a new one, please call the Contact Centre
on (01256) 844844 to order one. If you would like to swap your small recycling bin for a larger one, please use the link below.

When is my recycling collected?

If you are unsure when your collection day is, you can find out by entering your postcode. Click here to find out when your bins are collected. You may also find out by calling our Contact Centre on 01256 844844.

Recycling is collected fortnightly, with every household either being on a purple or a green week. The 2010 Collection Calendar is now available for you to download at the bottom of the page. Why not print it out and stick it on your fridge so you don't forget which week you are?

What can I recycle in my green recycling bin?

It is very important that only the items which can be recycled are put into your recycling bin.
Dealing with the wrong material is expensive and can sometimes lead to good material being sent for incineration.

Your recycling should be placed loose into your container and not wrapped in a plastic carrier bag or black sack. This makes it easier to sort.

Newspapers and magazines	Junk mail	Envelopes
Telephone directories, brochures, catalogues, Yellow Pages	Cardboard packaging cereal boxes, food packaging, egg boxes	Greetings cards birthday cards, Christmas cards
Drinks cans	Food tins please rinse clean	Plastic bottles All types including water, fizzy drink, milk,shampoo, cleaning products (e.g. bleach). Please remove the lids
	Aerosol cans

What can't I recycle in my green recycling bin?

Plastic packaging yoghurt pots, margarine tubs, plastic food trays. For more information please click here	Plastic carrier bags and black sacks There are no recycling facilities for these materials. Please make sure all your recycling is loose in your bin.	Drink and juice cartons and tetra paks These contain a mixture of card, plastic and foil making them very hard to recycle. There are no recycling facilities in the UK for this material.
Polystyrene	Gift Wrap This is often made from foil or lined with plastic so cannot be recycled.	Shredded Paper Your recycling is sorted using a lot of automatic sorting equipment which is unable to recognise small or shredded pieces of paper. Please click here for more information
Glass bottles and jars Manual sorting is also used so glass is unacceptable for health and safety reasons. Please recycle your glass bottles and jars at a Recycling Site	Aluminium Foil This is made from a different metal alloy to aluminium cans and needs to be recycled separately. Please recycle your aluminium foil at a Recycling Site	Clothing Good quality clothes can be donated to a local charity shop or placed in a textile bank at a Recycling Site
	Shoes Pairs of shoes can be donated to a local charity shop or placed in a textile bank at a Recycling Site

Some items are not collected from the kerbside, but can still be recycled. You can take your glass bottles and jars, clothes, shoes, books, aluminium foil and other items to one of over 75 recycling sites throughout the Borough. There is also the Household Waste Recycling Centre on Wade Road which accepts an even greater range of recyclable material, including batteries, fluorescent lamps, wood and green garden waste.

Click here to find out more about our Recycling Site Network

What Happens Next?

After collection, all the materials are taken to a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) near Alton. Here mechanical shovels load the material onto conveyor belts for sorting. This is done using hand-sorting, revolving cylindrical sieves, magnets, sophisticated optical identification and air jets! Due to the range of machinery involved it is very important that all the recyclables are placed in your bin loose and not wrapped up in plastic carrier bags or black sacks.

Once the materials are separated, they are baled and
loaded up, ready to be sent off to be recycled into new
materials.

For further information please telephone our Customer Contact Centre on (01256) 844844 or email: recycling@basingstoke.gov.uk