Blue recycling bins

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.