What can go in my recycling bin?

Have you ever thought about recycling everything? It's not just about the enviroment - recycling saves money. If we recycled one per cent more Southampton could save nearly £50,000 - that's for every percentage rise.

What to put in your blue-lidded recycle bin or clear recycling sacks

Paper

Any newspapers, magazines, holiday brochures or catalogues with black or coloured print.
All clean household paper, yellow pages, NOT shredded paper or Christmas wrapping paper.
Plain or printed, white or coloured photocopier or office paper.

Cardboard

Brown or coloured cardboard packaging. This includes any card used to package food, i.e. cereal boxes, card wrap around ready made food (but not plastic). As well as, tissue boxes, clean card packaging, birthday cards.

Junk mail

All dyed coloured or printed 'sales' papers and flyers.

Envelopes

White or brown including 'window'.

Plastic - bottles only

All household plastic bottles under 25 litres in size, please remove the bottle tops. Remember if it is bottle shaped and plastic it can go in your blue lidded bin. We can’t accept other types of plastic, even if it has a recycling symbol on it, because these are made of different plastics and there is not a local sustainable market to recycle them yet.
Did you know recycling one plastic bottle saves enough energy to power a light bulb for six hours?

Food tins and drinks cans

All food tins (please rinse out) and drinks cans.
Did you know recycling an aluminium can saves enough energy to run a TV for three hours?

Aerosols*

Empty aerosols- remove loose plastic lids but do not pierce or squash.
*Do not include those displaying a skull and cross bones or black cross on an orange background

To make the most of the space in your blue-lidded recycling bin, crush, squash or flatten materials.

After collection we sort and separate your recycling. Then we ship it to recycling facilities across the UK to make new cans, tins, newspapers and plastic bottles.

Don't put these into your recycling bin or clear sack

Black bags of rubbish

Bags of household waste, dust or dirt.

Food

Cooked or non cooked food of any kind should not be placed in your blue-lidded bin. Vegetable peelings and egg shells can be composted. For ideas on what to do with leftover food visit the Love Food Hate Waste website, linked below.

Shredded or contaminated paper

Shredded paper or christmas wrapping paper, any paper contaminated with food waste, liquid etc.

Plastics - apart from bottles

We only accept plastic bottles in the blue-lidded bin. Plastic films such as supermarket carrier bags, black bin liners, shrink wrap, cling film, film packaging or blister packs. Hard plastics such as margarine tubs, polystyrene cups and packaging, yoghurt pots and food trays can be reused or placed in your green bin.

Glass

Although glass can’t be recycled at home, there are more than 60 glass recycling banks in Southampton. Find out where these are on the link below.

Metals

Aluminium foil, i.e. baco type foil, food foil trays, scrap metal of any sort, batteries.

Composites - Tetrapak

Waxed cartons, tetrapak cartons.

Textiles

You can take your unwanted clothes, shoes and household textiles to charity shops or to textile banks across the city.

You must put your recycling in loose, not tied in carrier bags or black sacks - placing it in plastic bags prevents it from being sorted and results in good recycling being wasted.