Recycle Week with Newark and Sherwood District Council

This year’s campaign will focus on three common questions that many of us have when it comes to recycling:

• Does my recycling really make a difference?
• One item in the bin can’t hurt, can it?
• Recycling is so confusing, isn’t it?

One wrong item in the recycling bin from each of us can make whole lorry loads unrecyclable. Recycle now have a really useful Recycling Locator on its website at https://www.recyclenow.com/ where you can pop in your postcode to find out what you can recycle where you live.

One common material causing recycling confusion is plastic. Not all plastic is recyclable, and it is important to know which you can include in your recycling waste.

The plastic items you should recycle are:

• Plastic milk bottles
• Yoghurt pots
• Margarine tubs
• Plastic bottles (even better if the lid is screwed on!)
• Plastic bottle lids (but not pump or trigger sprays)
• Shampoo and shower gel bottles
• Cleaning product bottles

Plastic items you cannot recycle are:

• Food trays
• Plant pots
• Cling film
• Soft film wrap (like the type that comes on top of a plastic food tray)
• Plastic bags
• Bubble wrap
• Hard/rigid plastic

Councillor Roger Jackson, Portfolio Holder for Cleaner, Safer, Greener at Newark and Sherwood District Council, is keen to share some top tips for recycling with us,

“Contamination in our recycling is something that can have a huge effect on our efforts as a district to be cleaner and greener. You may think it is just one or two containers covered in food, or a stray plastic bag in your silver bin, but it can mean an entire lorry load cannot be recycled.

 My top tips are to rinse any food residue off your items before recycling them, don’t put recyclable items in plastic bags and try to keep your bathroom rubbish separated so it is easier when you take the bins out.”

It is also important to know what can go in your brown bin if you are signed up to the District Council’s Garden Waste Recycling service. If you are getting some gardening in before the colder days set in, make sure to only use your brown bin to dispose of:

• grass cuttings
• hedge trimmings
• leaves
• small branches and twigs (up to 10cm in diameter)
• plants and weeds
• cut flowers

Make sure plastic plant pots and plastic bags don't find their way into your Garden Waste Bin! Items like this will contaminate your waste.

Remember, if in doubt leave it out.

Craig Stephens, Campaign Manager for Recycle Now said: “By recycling even better we can have a big impact on our environment. In Newark and Sherwood it’s no different – more and more people are recycling, so the next step is to make sure we get our recycling right. So come on, Newark and Sherwood, keep up the great work and let’s make the district’s recycling better than ever before!”

To find out more about Recycle Week visit www.recyclenow.org.uk/recycleweek