Recycling collection

• glass and plastic bottles and jars (including lids)
• tins and cans
• plastic food containers

• Thin plastics like bread bags, grape bags, magazine wraps, crisp bags, frozen vegetable bags, wrapping on tubs of fruit/veg, plastic bags and shrink wrap plastic can be recycled at most supermarkets.
• Hard plastics like children's toys, buckets, mop handles and Tupperware cannot be recycled at the kerbside. Take these items to your nearest household waste recycling centre (tip).
• Polystyrene is currently not recyclable and should go into your refuse bin.
• Food waste goes into your food caddy.
• Paper and cardboard can be recycled, but need to be separated from plastics, glass and metal and put in your black box.
• Old clothes and textiles should be donated to a charity shop or deposited in specialised collection containers. If this is not possible, they should be put into your general rubbish.
• Lightbulbs and mirrors cannot be recycled at the kerbside.
• Electrical items such as microwaves and vacuum cleaners can be disposed of at your nearest household waste recycling centre (tip) or by using our bulky item collection service.

We know lots of residents work hard to recycle, however sometimes rubbish can end up in the wrong bins. This ‘contamination’ can prevent the whole lorry load from being recycled and results in the council being charged for its disposal.

We want to make sure that your efforts help the planet, so please remember:

• place everything loose in your bin, not in a black sack or plastic carrier bags
• rinse out all containers
• keep lids and bottle tops on for safety reasons
• bins contaminated with refuse will not be emptied.

• newspapers
• magazines
• junk mail
• directories
• catalogues
• envelopes
• cardboard
• cereal boxes
• paper bags

Large cardboard should be broken down into dustbin-sized pieces and placed safely near your black box for collection.

To ensure smaller pieces of paper/cardboard do not blow out of your black box, please place them inside a larger cardboard box like a cereal box.

Confidential and personal information must be kept safe so it is best to remove or shred it if possible before placing out for collection.

• hardback books
• greeting cards with metallic or shiny finishes
• wrapping paper with metallic finishes
• drinks cartons (Tetra Pak)

Why we can't collect Tetra Pak

We can't collect Tetra Pak as part of the kerbside recycling collections as it cannot currently be recycled.

Our kerbside collected recycled waste is disposed of by Kent County Council (KCC).

KCC is unable to dispose of Tetra as part of its recycling contract due to the following reasons:

• Tetra Pak is made up of wood, aluminium and plastic, these different components are not easily separated by the recycling process.
• There aren’t many recycling facilities in the south east, so local authorities have to follow the material requirements these facilities set. This could change in future as the government updates its waste and resources strategy.

Alternatively, Tetra Pak can be placed in your grey-lidded refuse bin (black bag waste) and this will go to the Energy from Waste Facility at Allington to be used to generate electricity. It is not sent to landfill.

Many batteries can be recycled at the kerbside with your other recycling.

Just fill a battery recycling bag with batteries and put it on the top of your black box for recycling on your collection day. If you have not got a battery bag, put them in a clear food bag.

We suggest that you store your button batteries separately from your AA batteries before putting them out for collection.

You can pick up a battery recycling bag free of charge if you are passing the council offices at White Cliffs Business Park, Whitfield, Dover CT16 3PJ.

Recycling diverts materials from landfills, reducing the need for new landfill sites and reducing soil and water pollution.

Recycling saves natural resources like wood, water and minerals by using old materials instead of taking new ones.

Making things from recycled materials usually uses much less energy than making them from new ones

Less energy use means fewer carbon emissions, which helps to fight climate change.

Recycling programmes bring people together and helps them learn to care for the environment.

By reducing pollution and waste, recycling contributes to cleaner air and water, which benefits overall health.

Recycling creates jobs for people who collect, sort and make new products from old materials.

Mixed recycling

On collection day, your mixed recycling (glass, tins, plastics, etc.) is loaded into the recycling truck and taken to a bulking facility where the contents are tipped into large containers. Once full, the materials are sent to a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) just outside Kent.

At the MRF:

• the mix is loaded onto a conveyor and passes through a rotating drum (trommel) where glass falls through holes and is collected
• a magnet removes metal tins and an electrical charge separates aluminium cans to allow them to be removed
• plastics, cartons and other items are identified by infrared sensors and blown into the correct containers. Bottle tops are also recycled
• staff remove any non-recyclable items by hand.

Plastic bottles go to a nearby facility where they’re cleaned, sorted by type, ground into flakes, washed and turned into plastic pellets. These pellets are used to make new bottles.

Glass is sorted by colour and melted down for reuse.

Tins and aluminium are sent to a foundry and made into metal blocks.

Batteries

Batteryback collects your old batteries and sends them to one of two sites in Belgium where the company REVATECH S.A. recycles them.

It is important to recycle batteries as careless disposal is hazardous to the environment. The toxic substances can seep into the water supply causing serious health problems.

Paper

Paper and magazines are sent to a recycling paper mill in Snodland, where they’re checked for quality and tipped into large storage bays.

The material is mixed with water in rotating drums to create pulp, separating fibres from contaminants like cans and plastic. Larger items are removed by screening, and smaller ones like staples and plastic bits are filtered out using cyclone screens. Ink is removed using soap bubbles, which lift it to the surface for removal. The pulp is cleaned further, brightened with hydrogen peroxide, and formed into sheets.

Water is removed and the paper is dried, then rolled onto reels and sent to publishers across the UK, Europe and beyond.

Watch how your paper is recycled at Snodland Paper Recycling Mill