This Recycle Week, 14 to 20 October 2024, the council’s waste and recycling team will be sharing top tips for rescuing recyclable items from heading to the rubbish bin and where to recycle them.
The 2024 Recycle Week theme is ‘Rescue Me’ and each day there will be a focus on the different items that can be recycled. By recycling just one extra item as part of your daily recycling routine will make a huge difference.
Why not have a separate recycling bin in the bathroom and bedroom or reuse a basket or box for all your aerosols, toilet roll tubes and cleaning bottles? You could even hand a recycling bag on the back of the bathroom door.
If you’re not sure how certain items should be recycled, check out these top tips from Recycle Now using recycling characters to help you remember:
Dee Dee the deodorant
- Aerosols - Aerosols | Recycle Now
- Short video of how it is recycled - Recycle Now: How is it recycled? Videos and printable assets | WRAP
- Recycle in green kerbside box
Rey the plastic trigger spray
- rinse and replace the trigger spray
- Recycle in burgundy bin
Yogi the yoghurt pot
- Recycle in burgundy bin
Fitz the perfume bottle
- Recycle in green box
Humble Hube - the toilet roll tube
- Recycle in burgundy bin
To find out what happens next to your waste and recycling, head to the waste and recycling pages.
The recycling rate (22/23) in North Lincolnshire is 50.3 per cent. Are you making the top recycling mistake? Many people add items that can be recycled, but it’s contaminated with something else.
When a recyclable item is contaminated with something that isn’t recyclable, it often means it can’t be recycled. Small amounts of the contaminated material are usually fine, but if there’s too much then it renders the whole item unrecyclable. This means it will end up being disposed of rather than being made into something else.
A common example of this is food packaging that still has food left in it – such as jars with bits of jam still inside, plastic bottles containing liquids, or takeaway trays and boxes that still have lots of food residue or grease in them. Another common example is cardboard that has sticky tape attached to it.
The key with this type of contamination is moderation. You don’t need to remove every label or bit of sticky tape, and you don’t need to put your jam jars through the dishwasher, just make sure the jars are empty and give them a quick rinse. It’s important to make sure your recyclables are in a condition that means they can be recycled.
Top hacks:
- Use your washing up water to rinse items such as glass jars and plastic bottles
- If there’s lots of sauce on your pizza box, you could tear off the dirty sections
- Remember to remove any polystyrene or bubble wrap before putting cardboard boxes out for recycling
