What goes in which bin

Recycling

All types of clean and dry cardboard are accepted in the purple bin. Please break down and flatten large boxes.

Alternative options

General Waste

Laminated cardboard for example, sandwich packets contains plastic. This can be put in your blue bin if it is clean, but if it has food on it it must go in your black bin as it is not suitable for composting.

Recycling

Materials from your purple bin are sorted and turned into new products. Please put things in the bin loose and not in bags. This helps us process it. You can find out more about processing by visiting RECAP’s website. 

Recycling

All colours of glass bottles and jars, including those from perfume and medicines, can be put in your purple bin. Please rinse and replace the caps on the bottles - this helps stop the small caps falling out of the sorting process. No need to remove spray pumps. They are separated from the glass when it is broken.

Materials from your purple bin are sorted and turned into new products. Please put things in the bin loose and not in bags. This helps us process it. You can find out more about processing by visiting RECAP’s website.

General Waste

Please put polystyrene in your black bin. Bag any broken pieces to avoid them blowing out when the bin is emptied and causing litter.

Food Waste

Tissues are not suitable for recycling. Even if they were clean, the paper is too low-quality with fibres too short to be made into new paper. Tissues can go into your green bin to be composted.

You can put things straight into the green bin. You can wrap food waste in newspaper or put it in a paper bag. Please do not use biodegradable 'plastic' or corn starch bags. These do not break down quickly enough and result in extra processing costs. Your bin could also be refused collection. More information on how the compost is made can be found on RECAP’s website. 

Food Waste

We waste more food than we think. In UK households we waste 6.5 million tonnes of food every year, 4.5 million of which is edible (i.e. not onion skins, egg shells etc).

• Check your cupboards and fridge, plan meals and make a list before you shop 
• Hit pause on produce by freezing it before (or on) its use-by date 
• Get creative in the kitchen to use up food which would otherwise be wasted – find recipes online 
• Turn your fridge temperature down to below 5°C – keeping foods like milk fresher for longer 
• Check out all the tips and advice at Love Food Hate Waste