A Practical Guide to Recycling at Home

UK households recycled 44% of their waste in 2024 — better than in 2010, but well behind countries like Germany (67%) and South Korea (59%). The gap isn't mostly about motivation: it's about confusion. Here's a practical, no-nonsense guide to recycling more of what you throw away.

What your council collects (and what it doesn't)

Kerbside recycling varies more than people realise. Your neighbour in the next borough might get glass collected; you might not. The basics that almost every council in England collects are:

• Cardboard — flattened and dry
• Paper — newspaper, magazines, envelopes (including windowed)
• Metal tins and cans — food, drink, aerosol
• Plastic bottles — all bottle types regardless of number
• Most food-grade plastic pots, tubs and trays — check your lid or the recycling symbol

Things that are often not collected kerbside — but which can be recycled elsewhere:

• Glass bottles and jars — use your nearest bottle bank; some councils collect it separately
• Soft plastics (carrier bags, film packaging, bread bags) — many supermarkets have collection points
• Batteries — drop-off points at most supermarkets and hardware stores, required by law
• Electricals — councils offer WEEE collection or you can use manufacturer take-back schemes
• Clothes and textiles — charity bins, Traid, Oxfam, or Collect+ postal recycling

The most common mistakes

Wishcycling

Putting non-recyclables in the recycling bin in the hope they'll be sorted out is one of the biggest problems in UK recycling. Contaminated loads can be rejected entirely and sent to landfill — so one person's wishcycling can undo an entire lorry of correctly sorted waste.

Common wishcycled items:

• Pizza boxes — greasy cardboard cannot be recycled. The lid is usually fine; the base usually isn't
• Black plastic food trays — many optical sorting machines can't detect black plastic, so it goes straight to residual
• Flexible plastic pouches — sauce sachets, baby food pouches, Capri-Sun cartons
• Shredded paper — too fine for conveyor sorting; it contaminates other paper streams
• Ceramics in the glass bank — one ceramic mug can contaminate an entire batch of molten glass

Not rinsing containers

Recycling doesn't need to be spotless — but a yogurt pot full of yogurt can contaminate the paper it's mixed with in transport. A quick rinse (not a full wash) is enough. You don't need hot water or soap.

Bagging recycling

Loose is better. Putting your recycling in a plastic bag means it arrives at the sorting facility bagged. The bag can jam machinery and the contents often go unsorted straight to residual waste.

Awkward items

Medicines

Never put medicines in any bin or recycling. Return them to your pharmacist — all pharmacies are legally required to accept unused or expired medicines for safe disposal.

Paint

Dried paint in metal tins can often go in kerbside metal recycling. Liquid paint must be dried out first (leave the tin open in a well-ventilated area away from children) or taken to your local household waste recycling centre.

Aerosols

Empty aerosols can go in your metal recycling bin. Make sure they're completely empty first — never puncture a pressurised canister. Most deodorant and cleaning sprays can be recycled this way.

Clothing and textiles

Even damaged, stained or torn clothing can be recycled — it becomes industrial rags, insulation material, or stuffing. Charity shops will take wearable items; Traid, Oxfam and H&M all accept unwearables specifically for recycling.

Beyond the bin

Recycling is only one step in the waste hierarchy. In order of environmental preference:

• Refuse — don't buy what you don't need in the first place
• Reduce — buy less, or buy products with less packaging
• Reuse — repair, donate, sell, lend, or compost
• Recycle — the fourth option, not the first
• Recover — energy from waste where recycling isn't possible
• Dispose — landfill, last resort only