Council Reports However we sometimes find ourselves hesitating with an item over our waste bin, wondering if something could or should be recycled, and often “if in doubt throw it out”. Unfortunately “wishful recycling” or throwing items in the recycling bin that you hope are recyclable or think should be, could actually be contaminating collections of recyclable materials. Often, instead of manual sorting, contaminated loads are merely sent to landfill, along with thousands of potentially recyclable items. It may sound harmless, but trying to recycle items that we shouldn’t can lead to multiple problems within the recycling process. So no plastic bags or plastic film or food ties, which clog up machines and slow the whole process down, no uncleaned items and no greasy food boxes or toothpaste tubes. On the other hand, according to Wrap, more than half of households put items in general waste that could be recycled, including shampoo and conditioner bottles, cleaning and bleach bottles, foil and aerosols. The general rule should be “If it’s plastic and bottle-shaped it can go in” but hard plastic refill tops and pumps should go in general waste. Find out where to recycle items you aren’t sure at: CLICK HERE Just enter the item and your location and it will tell you where it can be recycled. For Tetrapak packaging click HERE en-form are an excellent local town centre space where anything from toothpaste tubes to bras can be recycled. If they don’t recycle it, they know someone who can! On Facebook there is the Giveaway Group, where members can take unwanted items free of charge and save them from landfill: THE GIVEAWAY FACEBOOK GROUP Plastic bags and packaging can be recycled at most supermarkets and household batteries can be returned to any shop that sells them. It is law that any battery retailer has a battery collection box available for customers to return used batteries, to which are then sent away for recycling. We are fortunate in Colchester to have a pretty comprehensive recycling collection taken regularly and we should all make our best efforts to get the best out of it. 9
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