Recycling in your kitchen

Most people know that they can recycle some items from their kitchens, but do you really know just how much more you can recycle?

You can follow these tips to increase what you recycle from your kitchen:

Take off unnecessary card packaging as soon as you get your shopping home. Then pop the cardboard box straight in the recycling bin. This can make it easier to stack food away in cupboards or the fridge. You would be surprised at how much space this can make in your freezer too!
You can use a bin divider to separate recyclable items in your kitchen bin if you use one.
You can use another container to keep items in, like a second bin, a basket or a box.
Use reminders like sticky notes inside bin lids or inside kitchen cupboards so you remember to recycle.
Check the labels on bottles, packaging and tubs. Some shops offer refill schemes.
See if you can buy refills so bottles can be re-used. Some detergent companies do this.
If you have space you could keep your glass recycling caddy in your kitchen, then you can just pop your rinsed glass and jars straight in.

So what can I recycle from my kitchen?

Remember you can recycle all these items once they are empty, rinsed and finished with:

Cardboard	Kitchen roll tubes, soap boxes, cereal boxes, cardboard sleeves from ready meals, laundry powder boxes, orange juice cartons.
Plastic	Plastic ice cream tubs, yogurt pots, fabric softener bottles (not black plastic bottles), fizzy drinks bottles (labels removed), ice cream sprinkle tubs, kitchen cleaner bottles (spray tops removed) vegetable punnets, meat and deli trays (not black plastic)
Metal	Oven cleaner cans, polish cans, air freshener cans, beer cans, beer kegs.
Paper	Magazines, paper labels from cans and bottles, take away menus.
Glass - to go in the caddy	Wine and beer bottles, rinsed oil bottles, glass food colouring bottles (not Pyrex glass - look for the triangular recycling symbol)

Remember we cannot currently recycle pump dispenser tops (like from hand soaps) or spray bottle tops (like from kitchen cleaner or window cleaner). Please put the pump in your green bin and the bottle in your blue bin.

What can I do with other items that you cannot recycle?

There are options for recycling some of these tricky products and packaging. You can look for drop off points in your area by checking the Terracycle website. They work with partner companies to offer a recycling service for things like crisp packets, bread bags and laundry product packaging.

Please do not place small electrical items in your blue bin. If you have old or broken things like toasters, kettles or coffee machines, please take these to your nearest Household Waste Recycling Centre

There are some things from your kitchen that whilst they cannot be recycled in your blue bin, they can certainly be reused. Some items could also be taken to charity shops if they are in good condition.

Pyrex dishes
Pots and pans and cutlery
Old tea towels and dusters
Crockery

What about food waste?

If you do have food waste, why not get a compost bin? Find out more about this on our Composting page.

Did you know?

Plastic films, shrink wraps and labels are not recyclable.

If you want to recycle a fizzy drinks bottle you should peel off the plastic label from the bottle. The bottle goes in the blue bin, and the plastic label goes in the green bin.

Compostable and biodegradable wraps and films are also not recyclable.

You can either compost these or put them in your green bin.

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Recycling in your kitchen