Green box bottles, cans and plastic recycling collection
We collect your green box every other week. Your box must be placed at the edge of your property’s boundary with the pavement or within arm’s reach by 7am. We will collect:
- Drink cans
- Aerosol cans
- Food tins and foil
- Glass bottles and jars - all colours (including jar and bottle tops)
- Milk and drinks bottles
- Detergent bottles
- Shampoo bottles
- Plastic trays
- Yoghurt pots
- Ice-cream tubs
- Margarine tubs
- Tetra Paks (e.g. juice cartons and other beverage cartons)
Please don't put these in your green box:
- Black plastic trays
- Plastic bags
- Plastic-film
- Plastic toys
- Plastic plant pots
- Crisp packets and sweet wrappers
- Other metal
- Pyrex
- Drinking glasses
- Crockery
- Broken glass
- Window glass
- Polystyrene
Soft plastics such as plastic films and bags can be taken to most larger supermarkets. Check your local store for a recycling bin.
Request another green box for your plastics, tins and glass.
Recycling guide - printable leaflet
Find out about what happens to your recycling
Please don't use black bags instead of a green box, as we might mistake your recycling for rubbish. However, you can use plastic carrier bags, if you prefer.
Common questions about green box recycling
How can I stop my recycling blowing in the wind?
Try placing heavier items such as glass bottles and cans on top. Squashing your plastic bottles and aluminium cans will help too.
How can I best manage my green box recycling, now that more types of plastic are collected?
If you need additional green boxes, please request one.
Stacking similar sized items, such as yoghurt pots, would help maximise the volume of space available in your green box. Similarly, choosing to crush all plastic bottles, tins and cans, could also save space.
Can I recycle polystyrene or plastic film e.g. crisp packets in my green box?
No. If it 'scrunches' then we can't recycle it. However, we do take all rigid plastic food containers. Many supermarkets have recycling bins for soft plastics such as bread bags and carrier bags. Please check your local store.
My green box collection has been missed - what should I do?
Sorry if we have missed your collection. Please let us know when this happens so we can find out what went wrong and return to collect it. Sometimes collections are 'missed' because they haven't been put out by 7am or left in the correct place, which is at the edge of the property's boundary.
To report your missed collection use our missed collection report form. You can also report an ongoing problem with your waste or recycling collection - for instance, if your waste has been missed on a number of occasions.
Are wheeled bins the solution?
For this to be effective, all households would need wheeled bins, which would be a multi-million pound cost with comparatively little saving. In addition, as a round with wheeled bins takes longer there could also be other additional costs including staff and potentially vehicles too. Some residents may have practical constraints of storing wheeled bins.
Why can't I buy my own wheeled bin for my recycling?
We cannot collect from wheeled bins as if the bin does not meet the necessary British Standards it can result in health and safety issues for the collection crews. Also, from previous experience, the occasional wheeled bin led to collection difficulties and made the service inefficient. The council is unable to replace any privately owned bins that become damaged through collections.