Recycling in the South of Buckinghamshire

You can find all the information about to put in each bin below or you can downlaod as a leaflet to keep at home. 

What is recycling contamination?
Put simply, contamination in recycling refers to anything that’s in your recycling that
shouldn’t be. In some cases, that might be the result of what’s known as ‘wishcycling’
– when we chuck without checking, in the hope that something is recyclable.
It could be something that’s recyclable, but not collected by your council yet (such as
plastic wrapping), recycling contaminated with food or something that can’t be
recycled at all.
Why is contamination bad?
There are a number of reasons why it’s important to put the right things in the
right bin. If there are too many of the wrong things in the bin, it can mean that whole
lorry-loads of recycling can’t be recycled. In other words, a few bad apples spoil the
whole barrel. Another consideration is the increased costs of collecting and sorting
contaminated recycling – costs that are ultimately borne by all of us, as taxpayers.
By making sure the right things are in the right containers, we can all help save time
and money and make the recycling process more effective.

Contamination can also reduce the value of the recyclable materials and can lead to
them having to be disposed of rather than recycled into new products.

Top tips:
• Rinse your cans, plastic and glass
• If there’s lots of grease on your pizza box, you could tear of the greasy sections (or
just recycle the lid)
• Remember to replace the lids on bottles and jars before recycling them
• Remember to remove any polystyrene or bubble wrap before putting cardboard
boxes out for recycling
• Remember, all recycling should be loose and no bags in the mixed recycling bins
or paper boxes