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

Light-bulbs and fluorescent tubes belong at your local RECYCLING CENTRE, or REFUSE bin.

Examples: Fluorescent lights, low energy lightbulbs, and old style incandescent or tungsten light bulbs.

Please Remember: Fluorescent lights must go to your Recycling Centre as they are hazardous - please do not put them in your bin at home. Some low energy lightbulbs can be recycled at your local supermarket, for example Tesco. Why not have a look next time you go shopping instead of putting them in your refuse bin. Old style incandescent or Tungsten light bulbs cannot be recycled, so please put them in your refuse bin. Please find more details on the WasteAware website.

Fact: In the UK, we dispose of around 80 million fluorescent tubes each year. If we were to recycle those tubes, we could reuse up to 4 tonnes of mercury – a natural resource.

Magazines belong with your RECYCLING.

Please Remember:

Please Remember: Remove any plastic wrapping and free gifts from newspapers, magazines and flyers before recycling. These should go in your refuse bin. Newspaper and magazine plastic covers can be recycled at some supermarkets in their carrier bag and plastic film collection points.

Hints and Tips: Why not ask local schools if they would like your old magazines for art classes?

Mirrors belong in your REFUSE bin.

Please Remember: If mirrors are broken, please put them in a box or wrap it up to prevent any possible hazards.

Hints and Tips: If they are still in good condition, why not donate them to a charity shop?

Newspapers belong with your RECYCLING.

Please Remember: Remove any plastic wrapping and free gifts from newspapers, magazines and flyers before recycling. These should go in your refuse bin. Newspaper and magazine plastic covers can be recycled at some supermarkets in their carrier bag and plastic film collection points.

Hints and Tips: Why not ask local schools if they would like your old newspapers for art classes?

Facts:

• 90% of Sunday newspapers are thrown away in Britain. This is the equivalent to half a million trees.
• By recycling your daily newspaper, you can save your own body weight in paper in just one year.
• We could fill 103,000 double-decker buses with the amount of wastepaper sent to landfills each year.

Padded envelopes belong in your REFUSE bin.

Examples: Envelopes lined with bubble wrap (e.g. Jiffy bags)

Hints and Tips: Store envelopes for reuse, it will save you buying your own in the future.

Please see the information on the WasteAware website regarding paint and solvent tins (both empty and full).

Paper (any colour) belongs with your RECYCLING.

Examples: Printer paper and letters.

Please remember: We do not accept paper towels, tissues, napkins, baking paper, wall paper or wrapping paper and greetings cards with foil, embellishments or glitter with your recycling. Paper stained with food, grease, paint, or dirt should be put in your residual bin.

Hints and tips: Put shredded paper into a paper bag or envelope to stop it blowing away.

Facts:

• When you use recycled paper instead of “virgin” paper, you are contributing to saving 7,000 gallons of water per ton of paper produced. You’re also offsetting the 900,000,000 trees per year chopped down to make paper.
• It takes 70% less energy to recycle paper than it does to make it new from raw materials.

Paper towels and tissues belong in your REFUSE bin.

Please Remember: Flushing tissues, paper towels, and other cleaning and sanitary products 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: Did you know you can get reusable cloths to replace kitchen roll?

Parchment and baking paper belongs in your REFUSE bin.

Plastic bags belong in your REFUSE bin.

Examples: Carrier bags, bread bags, mixed salad bags, bags from online clothes orders, fruit/vegetable bags, frozen chip/vegetable bags, and compostable bags.

Please Remember: Carry your reusable bags to use where possible.

Hints and Tips: Plastic bags are a soft plastic, and some major supermarkets now have recycling points for plastic bags and packaging which cannot be recycled at home. Look out for ‘carrier bag collection points’ outside stores. As a general rule, if you can stretch the film, they can recycle it. So why not collect it at home and recycle it next time you shop.

Facts:

• 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 garbage patch three times the size of France.
• Plastics from items such as carrier bags and bottles that end up in our oceans kill around 1,000,000 sea creatures every year.
• Plastic rubbish in the British countryside kills thousands of land animals every year.

Plastic drink bottles belong with your RECYCLING.

Examples: Fruit juice, squash, or fizzy drink bottles.

Please Remember: Left-over liquid or food residue can contaminate other recyclables so please empty and rinse your containers. It does not need to be spotless, a quick rinse will do. Please remove plastic film and place in the general rubbish bin. Lids and labels can be left on. Save space by squashing bottles.

Hints and Tips: Please remember your reusables when you go out, you can find local Refill Stations on the refill app.

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 garbage patch three times the size of France.