It can be confusing as to what we can put into our Council blue-topped recycling bin as it may differ from other counties. The following information is taken from www.recycleforwestsussex.org taking into account the extra recycling we offer in our Sustainable Henfield high street recycling scheme. You can download and print this information here.
The 3 principles of how items should be put in a blue-topped bin are:
CLEAN - free from food and drink leftovers
DRY - no liquids, and keep your bin lid closed
LOOSE – no items in plastic bags
Type |
Yes Please in Blue Topped Bin |
No Thank You in Blue Topped Bin |
Henfield Recycling Scheme Options |
|---|---|---|---|
| PAPER AND CARDBOARD - We know we can recycle any clean paper and cardboard, but can we put shredded paper, kitchen roll and tissues in our recycling bin? |
Newspapers, magazines, food packaging sleeves, envelopes (including with windows), junk mail, greeting cards (with bows, ribbons etc and excess glitter removed), wrapping paper, telephone directories, catalogues, egg boxes, cereal boxes, paperback books, paper with staples, empty paper cups and coffee cups, cardboard containers with metal bases, pizza boxes and cardboard food containers as long as they are not greasy or have food leftovers. Did you know? Till receipts from shops now are a minimum size so they can be recycled. |
Shredded or small pieces of paper, paper towels, kitchen roll and tissues can’t be recycled because it can contaminate other recycling. Shredded paper can be used in compost, pet or animal bedding or take to a Household Waste Recycling Centre. Jiffy bags, Sellotape on wrapping paper and cardboard, metallic wrapping paper, plastic wrappers round junk mail, baby, facial or hand wipes. |
Pringles containers can be recycled under the Terracycle scheme and placed in the bin in the garden of the Post House Cafe. (Paper tape and non-plastic sellotape is now sold in Hamfelds to replace plastic tape for sealing up boxes) |
| ALUMINIUM AND TIN - These are valuable metals which we need to keep reusing. Most households recycle clean food & drinks cans and their lids, but can we recycle metal biscuit and sweet tins, aerosols, clean aluminium foil, metal trays and lids? | All of these metals can be recycled if they are clean. All food, drinks and pet food cans and metal lids and bottle tops can be recycled, but please rinse them out as they can contaminate other recycling, such as paper. Aerosols must be empty, but don’t pierce them for your own safety. If aluminium foil or metal trays are used in cooking, put them in hot water from the oven, which makes them much easier to clean. It doesn’t matter if they are not totally clean. Please loosely roll foil into a ball the size of cricket ball and include any glass milk bottle tops or other aluminium lids, eg yoghurt pots, so they can be recycled more easily | We can’t take paints, chemicals or engine oil cans, gas canisters, saucepans, baking trays, utensils, CD racks, garden tools or electrical items – take all these to a Household Waste Recycling centre. |
Household batteries – can be taken to any shop that sells them - Budgens, One Stop or Hamfelds to recycle. |
| MEDICINE BLISTER PACKS AND INHALERS - Can we put medicine blister packs in the blue-topped recycling bin? |
Empty blister packs can now be recycled in a blue topped bin. Also clean empty plastic or glass medicine bottles. |
No medicines | Inhalers contain propellants which are greenhouse gases and need to be destroyed. Please do not put them in your household waste, but take them to Lloyds Pharmacy in Henfield, or any other pharmacy. These inhalers are now available without the damaging propellants – so please ask your GP to swap you over to this type. |
| FOOD AND DRINK CARTONS (TETRA PAKS) - Can we put these in the blue-topped bin? | If the cartons are clean, eg fruit juice, milk, soup, smoothie, chopped tomatoes or other cardboard cartons.
Please remove the plastic top and place in your rubbish bin, plastic spouts are difficult to remove and so these can be left on the carton. Cartons are reprocessed with paper and card and made into packaging and plasterboard liner. |
Cartons which are not clean or empty |
Children’s yogurt pouches can now be recycled, if rinsed out, in high street recycling in Stokes. |
|
GLASS JARS AND BOTTLES - We know we can recycle these, but can we put drinking glasses, Pyrex products and crockery in the blue-topped bin? |
All coffee, jam and sauce jars and wine, beer, sauce and perfume bottles, but please take the lids off and empty and clean as much as possible before putting them in the bin. |
Items such as drinking glasses, Pyrex, milk bottles, mirrors or window glass, vases, paperweights and candle jars have different chemical properties and can’t be recycled with glass bottles and jars. Ceramics and crockery can’t be recycled, so put in your household waste bin |
|
| BOTTLE LIDS - We must not leave lids on plastic or glass bottles, but can we put plastic lids smaller than a coffee/jam jar in your recycling bin? |
All metal lids. Plastic lids of all types larger than a jam jar. Please put glass milk bottle tops in with foil in a ball so it is easier to recycle |
No plastic lids smaller than a coffee/jam jar because lids jam up the sorting machines |
Cornerweighs in Henfield though are collecting plastic milk bottle tops and take them to the Springboard project in Horsham which raises money to help disabled people. Do take all other plastic bottle tops and natural corks to Katies Nuttery where they are sent off to be made into other plastic products including shelters and furniture. |
|
PLASTIC BOTTLES AND CONTAINERS - Can we put plastic bottles, cups, tubs and pots in the blue topped bin, eg yogurt and cream pots, margarine, ice cream, cosmetic and laundry tubs? |
We want all plastic bottles and containers, but they must be clean, eg milk and drink bottles, bathroom, laundry or detergent bottles and tubs, yogurt, cream and soup pots, ice cream and margarine tubs, cosmetic pots and tubs, food and ready meal trays, fruit and vegetable punnets. |
We can’t take plastic film, plastic bags/sacks, salad bags, cereal bags & bubble wrap. These can all be taken as flexible plastic to large supermarkets and some Co-Op stores. Plastic toys, buckets, plant pots and seed trays, plastic furniture, coat hangers or coffee pods cannot be accepted. |
Hamfelds collects trigger sprays where they can be removed, pumps from soap containers, surface wipes packaging and air fresheners. Natasha’s beauty salon bin outside the salon collects roll-on deodorants and cosmetic pots and tubs. Relish take Tassimo & L’Or coffee pods and Kenco refill packs, but try to avoid plastic coffee packs as reusable pods now available for all coffee machines. |
| PLASTIC TRAYS - Many products come in plastic trays, but can all colours be recycled, eg black trays, and thin plastic ones, eg biscuit tin dividers? | All different colours of plastic trays can be recycled. Also, the thin plastic dividers for example, in biscuit tins. | Polystyrene trays and packaging cannot be recycled | |
| SOFT PLASTIC - Can we put clean baby food pouches, crisp packets, biscuit, cake and confectionary wrappers in the blue topped bin? | No soft plastic bags/plastic or cellophane bags. Plastic bags can be recycled in large supermarkets. | These items have a layer of plastic on them and are not true aluminium foil. If you are unsure if something is true aluminium – try the scrunch test. Scrunch up the item in your hand, if it springs back it contains plastic and can’t be recycled. If it stays crunched up it is true aluminium foil and can go in your recycling bin. | All these items can all be recycled in the Henfield Terracycle scheme, if clean. The companies making these items sponsor their reprocessing into other plastic products and give us money for Henfield Haven. Do look at full information under SH2030 Guide for Terracycle recycling in Henfield. |
