If you don’t, fear not. Recycling in Derby is super simple.
Hey, quick question. Do you know which wheelie bin is for your recycling and what you can recycle in it?
If you don’t, fear not. Recycling in Derby is super simple. There’s just one bin for all your recycling and it’s the blue one. It’s probably different to how you recycle at home but there’s just a few steps to follow to recycle like a champ.
There are seven types of materials that can be recycled in Derby:
- Paper and cardboard (including envelopes and magazines)
- Food tins and drinks cans
- plastic bottles, pots, tubs and trays
- glass bottles and jars
- food and drink cartons
- aerosols
- kitchen foil and foil trays
But, before you full send all your recycling in the bin, make sure you’ve followed these top tips:
Check before you chuck – if you’re not 100% sure that something is made of one of the materials listed above, check this handy A-Z of recycling. If you put something in the blue recycling bin that can’t be recycled, it won’t be emptied by our crews. You’ll then need to take out any contamination before your next collection.
Wash and squash – food, drink and product residue left on items could make a literal truckload of recycling too mucky to be processed meaning it doesn’t get recycled! It’s a lot of time and effort wasted for potentially hundreds of homes because someone was too lazy to rinse out those bean tins and microwave meal trays. So, before those greasy take-away tubs go in the blue bin, give them a rinse in the washing up water.
Cardboard boxes should be flattened down.
No thank you – there are a few things that can’t be recycled that end up in bins more than others. Plastic bags, crisp packets and other plastic films, like cereal bags can’t go in the blue bin. But, don’t just chuck them! Most supermarkets have a recycling point for these items.
Another, potentially very dangerous item that finds it way into recycling is batteries and electronics like vapes. The vehicles that collect recycling, crush what they’ve collected as they travel round. Any batteries or electronics that get damaged by this process could catch fire either in the vehicle or at the processing site. Please, leave these items out and take them to in-store recycling points.
Make recycling even easier – make sure you have a separate bin or container (a big shopping bag works great) in the kitchen, bedroom and bathroom to collect all your recycling.
Got more questions? Need more info? Head over to the Derby City Council website.