What can I put in my recycling bag/bin?
Items that can be put in your recycling bin/bag
There is so much you can do to reduce your waste. Take a look below at all the items you can recycle.
It is very important that only items which can be recycled are put into your recycling bag/bin. Dealing with the wrong items is expensive and can sometimes lead to good recycling being sent for incineration.
Newspapers and magazines
Junk mail
Envelopes
Telephone directories, brochures and catalogues
Cardboard packaging
(Ideally, sellotape should be removed). Cereal boxes, food packaging, egg boxes
Greetings cards
(without glitter or ribbon)
Drinks cans
Food tins
Please rinse clean
Plastic bottles
Including drinks, milk, shampoo, cleaning products. Lids can be left on, but wash and squash bottles first.
Aerosol cans
Household aerosol cans, unless they have a 'skull and cross bones' logo or a black cross on an orange background
Items that can't be put in your recycling bin/bag
Batteries
Not recyclable via your green bin as they cause fires at our sorting facility. Take them to medium or larger sized shops to recycle.
Plastic packaging
Yoghurt pots, margarine tubs, plastic food trays
Plastic carrier bags and black sacks
There are no recycling facilities for these materials
Drinks and juice cartons
Cartons (soup, milk, juice, etc)
Aluminium foil
This is made from a different metal alloy to aluminium cans and needs to be recycled separately
Polystyrene / Thermocol
Gift wrap
This is often made from foil or lined with plastic so cannot be recycled.
Clothing
Good quality clothes can be donated to a local charity shop or placed in a textile bank.
Shoes
Pairs of shoes can be donated to a local charity shop or placed in a textile bank.
Shredded paper
Your recycling is sorted using a lot of automatic sorting equipment which is unable to recognise small or shredded pieces of paper.
Some of the items that can't be collected, can still be recycled. You can take your clothes, shoes, books, aluminium foil and other items to one of our recycling sites in 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.