What can go in your recycling bin
Blue recycling bins in Enfield are collected every 2 weeks.
By using your recycling bin you’ll be playing an important part in helping our environment. But only if it’s used in the right way.
All recycling that’s put in your bin, must be clean, dry and appear on the list of accepted items below.
What can go in your blue bin
- Aluminium foil (scrunched up in a fist-sized ball)
- Drink cartons (fruit juice, milk and soup cartons)
- Empty aerosols (deodorant cans and furniture polish)
- Food tins and drink cans
- Glass bottles and jars
- Empty plastic carrier bags
- Paper and card (junk mail, magazines, newspapers, telephone directories, corrugated cardboard, cereal packets and shoe boxes)
- Plastic bottles, tubs, pots and trays (margarine tubs, yoghurt pots and fruit trays)
What cannot go in your blue bin
- Ceramics
- Clinical or healthcare waste
- Crisp packets
- Electrical items or cables
- Food and dirty containers
- Garden waste
- General rubbish or black bags
- Hard plastics
- Light bulbs or broken glass
- Nappies
- Oversized metal bigger than a 2 litre bottle (pots and pans, paint tins, bread boxes or umbrellas)
- Oversized plastics bigger than a 5 litre bottle (buckets, crates, washing up tubs, storage boxes or furniture)
- Plastic feeding tubes
- Plastic toys
- Plastic wrapping
- Polystyrene
- Rubble
- Sanitary products
- Shredded paper
- Single use masks and gloves
- Textiles, clothes, shoes or cushions
- Filled plastic carrier bags
- Used tissues
- Wallpaper
- Wood
Many of these items can be donated for reuse or recycled at Barrowell Green Recycling Centre.
Excess waste we will collect
If you are continually having excess recycling, you may need to consider ordering a bigger bin or extra bin.
For one-off or adhoc extra recycling, we will collect extra recycling presented next to your recycling bin on your scheduled collection day.
We will accept:
- flattened cardboard boxes (please remember to remove plastic inserts, polystyrene and tape as these items are not recyclable and your bundle will not be collected)
- other extra recycling - this can be placed neatly alongside your recycling bin on your scheduled collection day
If we’re experiencing delays (for example, vehicle breakdown, road works or a high volume of recycling on the round), we may stop collecting extra recycling to prioritise bin collections.
Excess waste we will not collect
We will not accept:
- tied black sacks - as the crew cannot see inside to identify recyclable items
- glass - for safety reasons, glass must be placed in your recycling bin instead
What happens to my recycling?
All recycling we collect is sent to a sorting facility in Edmonton. It then goes through specialist re-processing to be turned into new products.
For more information on how items are recycled and composted, visit Recycle Now.
If you put the wrong items in your blue bin
Contamination
When we collect your bin, we carry out a quick check for contamination - wrong or dirty items spoil other recycled items.
If you’re not recycling properly
You may receive a letter if you’re not recycling properly. The first letter is to help you and we will ask you to take a little more care in what you place into your blue lidded recycling bin to avoid contaminating it.
If you receive follow-up letters, we will stop collecting your blue lidded recycling bin and you could receive a £60 fixed penalty notice as per our recycling contamination policy (PDF, 235.53 KB).
Please read the letter carefully and make sure that your bin only contains correct items for recycling.
Why we look through your bins
We only collect clean and correct recycling so we have to look through the waste put out for collection. If we do not do this, items that could have been recycled may end up being disposed of as rubbish which is bad for the environment.
Larger rubbish bins
If your rubbish bin is too small, you can request a larger rubbish bin if you meet certain critieria. You should not use your blue lidded recycling bin for household waste.
If your rubbish bin gets very full, find out how you can reduce and prevent waste.
Clothes and textiles
Unfortunately, clothes, shoes and textiles cannot go in your blue recycling bin.
You should not put these items in your blue bin
- towels
- sheets
- bedding
- blankets
- soft furnishings
If you have unwanted clothes or shoes, giving them to a charity shop is a great way of reusing items rather than throwing them away. TRAID also offer free collection of textiles from your home.
Alternatively you can take them to Barrowell Green Recycling Centre.