Recycle Now (enter your postcode to recycle everything!)
Recycle Now is a good website, just enter your postcode to find where to recycle practically anything to avoid ‘wishcycling (‘guessing’ is not good, as machines sort the waste, so it contaminates).
Read more on recycling aluminium cans/foil and glass. Always remove lids of cans before recycling (or pop ring-pulls back over holes) to avoid wildlife getting trapped.
Some surprising things you can’t recycle are:
- Black bin bags (machines don’t recognise the colour). Switch to white biodegradable bin bags.
- Instant porridge sachets (they have plastic linings)
- Greasy pizza boxes (rip off the greasy part, then recycle the rest).
- Half-empty cleaning bottles (take to hazardous waste).
- Pump dispensers (trigger sprays can be recycled)
- You CAN recycle window envelopes (machines can sort it)
Simple Tips for Better Recycling
- Rinse sticky jars and choose paper packing tape.
- Recycle soft plastics at supermarket bag bins (or Boots).
- All stores selling batteries, electrical goods, carpets and mattresses must take back old ones.
- Only donate clean clothes to small charity shops (not the big guns that fund animal testing). Place damaged/worn clothing in textile banks (recycled into insulation and carpet underlay).
- Read more on recycling mobile phones and printer cartridges.
- Bin old light bulbs (in thick paper). LED bulbs can be recycled in stores.
- Bin small amounts of cooking oil in kitchen towel. Or use an oil recycling bin.
- Community Repaint accepts paint from households and businesses.
- Recycle medicines and supplements at pharmacies (don’t bin them).
- Recycle spectacles and contact lenses at opticians.
- Bin old toys, baby mattresses and car seats (these could contain mould and be dangerous if passed on to other families).
Even if you make compost (keep fresh compost away from pets as it contains mould), put allium scraps (onion, garlic, shallots, leeks, chives) and tomato/citrus/rhubarb scraps in the food waste bin (to be digested into biogas) as acids can harm compost creatures. Same for tea leaves and coffee grounds (use a sink protector to stop clogged sinks).
TerraCycle Boxes are for hard-to-recycle items (crisp packets, cigarette waste, pens, party items). Some boxes are free (sponsored by industry), others mean communities pool donations to order a one-off box to send off using the pre-paid shipping label, to recycle into other goods.
Things that must go in rubbish bins include:
- Animal waste (poo!)
- COVID-19 tests and PPE (always ‘snip the strips’ of blue disposable face masks if used, to avoid them tangling birds and wildlife at landfills).
- Disposable nappies
- Glass cookware (including Pyrex), drinking glasses and ceramics
- Plastic sticky tape
- Disposable tissues and wet wipes
- Disposable cotton wool and cotton buds
- Old pots and pans
