The red box

Yes please...

• Plastic bottles and lids - See below for further information
• Household plastics packaging - See below for further information
• Food and drinks cans (clean)
• Aerosols
• Clean foil
• Glass bottle and jars (please keep in a separate red box. If you need another box you can request another container).

If you have extra recycling that won't fit in the red box please request another container, please do not leave recycling in plastic carrier bags or black bin bags for health & saftey, and operational reasons.

Don't forget to squeeze and squash the plastics to get more in your existing containers, and don't forgot to fasten the lid on the red box to prevent recyclables escaping. You can request a lid for your red box(es).

Where does it go? 

Find out where your recycling goes... 

What if I have too many plastic bottles, cans, and glass bottles for the red box?

Please order another red box online.

Please make sure all glass bottles are placed in the red box. We cannot accept recycling in plastic carrier bags for operational and safety reasons. If you require a separate red box just for glass containers please call the recycling hotline.

If you are consistently producing more recycling than will fit in the box we can issue you with additional boxes.

Why are items left in my box?

Our crews will only take items that are recyclable on this scheme. Please dispose of the items in the black bin or recycle at other points in the district, such as at supermarkets or leisure centres.

Why are only certain types of plastics collected?

There are many different types of plastics used for making different products.

Most plastic bottles (which we collect on this scheme) are made from specific types of plastics for which markets have been developed, which enables us to collect them for recycling.

We can also now take black plastics such as black plastic fruit punnets, meat/fish trays and ready meal trays.

No thanks...

Why no plastic bags?

• Some recycling companies in recent years were willing to accept plastic bags for recycling but they won’t anymore. Quite simply, none of the recycling companies who buy our plastics want to buy plastic bags because they have little or no value and affect the sorting process.
• To make the most of your recycling efforts, during 2014 we invested in technology to mechanically separate plastic bottles, steel cans, and aluminium cans that are currently collected at the kerbside and mixed together.

How plastic bags cause problems:

• Plastic bags containing a mix of steel cans, aluminium cans, and plastic bottles can’t be mechanically separated; they end up sticking altogether to the steel magnet and the whole lot ends up in the ‘steel’ bay mixed. This means we have to run the material through the machine again, which adds cost to the process.
• Plastic bags can snag on belts and other bits of machinery. Breakdowns can be expensive to repair, result in lost working time, and means the material has to go through the machine more than once.
• When the crew try to split plastic carrier bags at the kerbside, the collectors can’t clearly see what’s in the bag. This is a safety issue, can lead to mess on the road, and increases contamination issues resulting in poor quality material for resale.
• In fact most people think plastic bags are a blight on their community. So much so that supermarkets in England charge 5p per plastic bag in a national effort to reduce the amount of plastic bags in our communities. In Scotland and Wales they have already reduced the consumption of plastic bags by 80% by charging for plastic bags. We would urge residents who are struggling for capacity to order more recycling containers online.

What you can do to help

• Please only use council recycling containers for your plastics bottles, pots, tubs, trays, and cans recycling. If you need more recycling containers just order them online.
• Try squeezing and squashing your cans and bottles so you can fit more into your containers. We do accept cardboard which doesn’t fit into the yellow bag if it has been neatly flat packed and is free of plastic film or polystyrene.
• It might sound confusing, but please only use plastic bags for recycling textiles. This is because they are stored separately on the recycling lorry and sold directly to a textiles reprocessors, where it actually makes it easier if they are in bags. 

Large plastic containers over 5 litres

• Unfortunately we are not able to accept large plastic containers over 5 litres in the red box. This is due to the way we process plastics, tins and cans into three separate material streams using magnets and conveyor belts. We separate them as when we sell the recycling it is worth more money. Large bulky plastic items cause blockages, as they are too large to go through the sorting process. This causes the separation machinery to automatically shut down, so the blockage can be cleared, but this loses valuable time. Below explains how the separation process works.

Find out more about recycling plastic in North West Leicestershire.