Recycling plastic

Plastic bags and wrapping collection trial
We're trialling recycling collections of plastic bags and wrapping as part of the FPF FlexCollect Trial. The trial is fully funded externally by the Flexible Plastics Fund. Visit the Recycle Now website to find out more.
13,000 households in selected areas are receiving fortnightly collections of items such as plastic bags, food wrapping, crisp packets, bubble wrap, pet food pouches and more.
You can check if your street is on the trial by clicking the links below. If you are on the trial, you can order more purple bags online.
FlexCollect trial street list - all rural households (PDF Document, 0.11 Mb)
FlexCollect trial street list - E2 Wednesday collections (PDF Document, 0.12 Mb)
FlexCollect trial street list - W1 Friday collections (PDF Document, 0.12 Mb)

Which container should I put my plastics in?

Please put plastic bottles, pots, tubs and trays in the same red box or bin as your cans, tins and foil.

Which plastics can I recycle?

With lots of different symbols on plastic packaging, it can be confusing to understand what can and can’t be recycled. Please refer to our plastic recycling guide below to help you out.

Yes please

• Plastic drinks bottles and lids
• Meat/fish trays (including black plastic)
• Yoghurt pots
• Plastic tubs (e.g. sweet tubs, ice cream tubs and takeaway containers)
• Fruit punnets
• Household cleaning bottles (including bleach bottles and trigger sprays)
• Bathroom plastics (e.g roll on deodorants, mouthwash bottles, shampoo and shower gel bottles - including black plastic)
• Hand soap bottles
• Taupe grey coloured plant pots

Guide to which types of plastic can be recycled in the red box (PDF Document, 0.36 Mb)

No thanks

• Tetra Paks / cartons
• Plastic plant pots (except for taupe grey plant pots)
• Film bags / film (unless you are in the FlexCollect trial area)
• Crisp packets or chocolate and biscuit wrappers
• Pet food pouches
• Rigid/hard plastic such as buckets, storage boxes, toothbrushes, clothes hangers and stationery (e.g. pens, rulers and correction tape / fluid)
• Food remains on any recyclable items
• Compostable or biodegradable plastics
• Large plastic containers over 5 litres
• Dental items such as toothbrushes, toothpaste tubes and retainer cases.

Please visit our Recycling A-Z for advice on how to recycle the items above.

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 & safety, 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 what happens to your plastic and what it is recycled into.

What you can do to help

Keep it clean!

You can really help by cleaning your plastics before putting them in the red box.

Food contamination on things like yoghurt pots and rigid food containers means the plastic isn't of a high enough quality for us to get the best prices, from this income we invest back into the services provided by the council.

Hard rigid plastics

We cannot accept "hard" or "rigid" plastics in the red box as the companies that process your plastic cannot recycle it.

Hard, rigid plastics were previously accepted for recycling at the county council's Recycling and Household Waste Site however it is now difficult to find a market for recycling hard plastics.

Examples of hard plastics:

• Clothes hangers
• Storage boxes
• Buckets
• Toothbrushes
• Dental retainer cases
• Stationery
• Children's toys
• Games such as Connect 4.

Carrier bags

Unless you are on the FlexCollect trial, plastic carrier bags are not accepted for recycling. This is because none of the recycling companies who buy our plastic want to buy plastic bags as they have little or no value and affect the sorting process. Find out how plastic bags cause problems during our recycling process.

Many large supermarkets now have plastic bag recycling points available - ask at your local store. Most supermarkets that do home deliveries will also take away your carrier 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.