To recycle, or not to recycle (and how) - an A-Z guide

Cardboard sandwich boxes belong in your REFUSE bin.

Examples: Meal Deal sandwich box

Please Remember: Leftover food can make other recyclables dirty, so please empty them before recycling.

Hints and Tips: Why not make your sandwiches at home and use a reusable lunch box? It will save you money and reduce your waste!!

Fact: ‘Lunch on the go’ habit generates 11 billion items of packaging waste every year.

Cardboard tubes belong with your RECYCLING.

Examples: Inner tubes from toilet rolls and wrapping paper

Hits and Tips: Keep a recycling bin or bag in the bathroom to remind you to recycle your bottles and toilet roll tubes

Cat litter belongs in your REFUSE bin.

Please remember: Cat litter and other pet waste must always go in your refuse bin, and must be bagged. There are some which claim to be 'biodegradable' or 'compostable' so may be able to go in your home compost, however please check their labelling for information on home composting, and do not put the waste in food pods, garden waste bins or recycling.

Ceramics belong in your REFUSE bin.

Examples: China plates, bowls, and dishes.

Please Remember: If they are in good condition, please donate them.

Fake Christmas trees belong in your REFUSE bin or at your local RECYCLING CENTRE.

Please Remember: Please remember to check recycling centre opening times before going, and remember to remove all decorations before disposal.  Don’t forget broken lights can be recycled at the centre too!!

Hints and Tips: Click Here to see a comparison of real and fake Christmas trees. Don’t forget broken lights can be recycled at your local Recycling Centre.

Fact: It’s said that they would need to be kept for over 10 years to be more environmentally friendly than a real tree. They are non-recyclable and will therefore end up in landfill or being incinerated. So if you won’t use it for 10 years, consider buying a real tree, making your own, or use a growing one.

Real Christmas trees should be left out for the COUNCIL TO COLLECT.

Real Christmas Trees should be left out next to your bins for collection on a week B.  Real trees will be collected regardless of subscription to the garden waste service.

Please Remember: Please remove all lights, decorations, and stands before leaving it out, otherwise it will not be collected.

Hints and Tips: Click Here to see a comparison of real and fake Christmas trees.

Fact: When one is cut down, 3 are generally grown in its place. They are biodegradable and if disposed of correctly, they can be recycled into mulch. If they are not disposed of correctly, it could rot in landfill, releasing methane gas, releasing the emissions they have absorbed over their lifetime.

Cleaner and detergent bottles belong with your RECYCLING.

Examples: Washing up liquid bottles, cleaning sprays, and bleach bottles.

Please Remember: Please rinse them out before recycling as left-over liquid can make other recyclables dirty. Lids and labels can be left on.

Facts:

• Plastic rubbish in the British countryside kills thousands of land animals every year.
• Enough plastic bottles are tossed each year to circle the planet five times.
• Recycling a single plastic bottle will save enough energy to power a lightbulb for three hours or more.
• More than 15% of the money we spend on products pays for packaging – most of which goes straight in the bin.
• 8 million tonnes of the world’s plastics end up in our oceans each year, creating a waste patch three times the size of France.

Coffee pods and capsules - refer to label

Examples: Nespresso coffee capsules

Please remember:

• Nespresso, Nescafé Dolce Gusto and Tassimo machines - check Podback to see if you can use their recycling collection service.
• Aluminium pods from Hotel Chocolat or Nespresso - the Podcycler can help you clean them so you can put them in your home recycling bin.
• Other brands - check the TerraCycle recycling scheme.
• Coffee pods cannot go in your home food waste or garden waste bins (find out why). If the label suggests they can, report it to us.

Check the label: If it's compostable plastic, you can put the pods in your home composting.

Hints and Tips: Why not switch to refillable pods or instant coffee? If you are sticking with your pods, please find out how and where you can recycle them.

Fact: Around 39,000 are produced EVERY MINUTE globally, with 29,000 of these going to landfill.

Lenses belong in your REFUSE bin (never down the toilet).

The cardboard box, lens pot (with foil top removed and placed in your refuse bin), and empty lens solution bottles belong in your RECYCLING bin.

Please Remember: Please remove the foil lid from the lens pot before recycling. The foil lid belongs in the refuse bin.

Hints and Tips: TerraCycle collect lenses, lens pots, and foils in some areas, have a look at their website to see if you have a local recycling station.

Cotton wool, cotton pads, and sanitary products belong in your REFUSE bin.

Examples: Sanitary pads, tampons, panty liners, cotton wool makeup pads, ear buds.

Please Remember: Flushing these materials causes’ huge issues in our sewerage systems, water filtration process and in our oceans, as they are all full of plastic so don’t break down. This includes ’flushable’ wipes.

Hints and Tips: Why not try reusable cloth wipes, pads, and sanitary products? Follow City to Sea and Surfers Against Sewerage to find out more about reusable products (including discount codes from City to Sea) and ocean pollution.

Facts:

• Flushed plastics make up around 2% of beach litter in the UK. Menstrual products are the fifth most common item found on Europe’s beaches, more widespread than single-use coffee cups, cutlery or straws.
• 8billion cotton buds are used each year in the UK, with 10% being flushed down the toilet having detrimental impacts in water ways, sewerage systems, and the ocean. Make sure you put them in your refuse bin!
• A ‘conventional’ pack of menstrual pads contains around the same amount of plastic as 5 carrier bags. Depending on where it ends up as waste, it could have a longer life-span than the person who uses it!
• It’s estimated that every single day in the UK about 700,000 panty liners, 2.5 million tampons and 1.4 million pads are flushed down the toilet, many blocking our sewer systems and entering rivers and oceans.

Crisp and sweet packets and wrappers belong in your REFUSE bin.

Examples: Single and multipack crisp, popcorn and KP nut packets.

Please Remember: Crisp packets are a soft plastic, and some major supermarkets now have recycling points for them, so look out for carrier bag collection points and collect it at home to recycle it next time you shop. TerraCycle also collect crisp packets in some areas, have a look at their website to see if you have a local crisp packet recycling station.

Hints and Tips:

Fact: Walkers alone produces 7,000 non-recyclable crisp packets every minute.