Preparing your household recycling

Yes please:

• Fruit juice cartons
• Long life milk cartons
• Soup and smoothie cartons
• Other cardboard cartons

No thanks:

• Crisp packets
• Cat food pouches
• Soup pouches

Cartons are made from paperboard and have a plastic or wax like coating and often a foil lining. They are sorted, baled up with the mixed paper and card and taken to a paper mill for reprocessing into new paper and card products.

Squash the carton and replace the cap once the carton is clean and dry.

Yes please:

• Aluminium foil
• Aluminium foil containers

No thanks:

• Crisp packets
• Biscuit or chocolate bar wrappers
• Cat food pouches
• Soup pouches
• Dirty foil
• Foil wrapping paper

Soft plastics such as cat food pouches, biscuit or chocolate bar wrappers and crisp packets cannot be recycled at home as they have a layer of plastic on them and are not true aluminium foil. These items can be recycled at some supermarkets as part of their soft plastic recycling scheme. To find your nearest participating supermarket visit Recycle Now's recycling locator.

To find out if foil is recyclable at home scrunch it in your hand. If it holds its shape then it can be recycled in your kerbside recycling bin.

Yes please:

• Coffee jars
• Wine and beer bottles
• Jam jars
• Sauce bottles and jars
• Perfume bottles (and tops if glass or metal)

No thanks:

• Mirror or window glass
• Pyrex
• Drinking glasses
• Milk bottles
• Ceramics and crockery
• Glass vases
• Paperweights
• Spectacles
• Candle jars

Items such as drink glasses and Pyrex dishes have different chemical properties to regular glass. They melt at higher temperatures, so cannot be recycled with glass bottles and jars.

Metal lids from wine bottles and jam jars should be removed and placed loose in your recycling bin.

Yes please:

• Milk and drink bottles (squashed and lids replaced)
• Bathroom bottles, including roll-on deodorants (squashed and lids replaced)
• Laundry and detergent bottles and tubs (squashed and lids replaced)
• Washing-up liquid bottles (squashed and lids replaced)
• Yoghurt, cream and soup pots
• Ice cream and margarine tubs
• Cosmetic pots and tubs
• Food and ready meal trays
• Fruit and vegetable punnets
• Plastic container lids (about the size of a coffee jar lid or larger)

No thanks:

• Bioplastics 
• Plastic film
• Bubblewrap
• Plastic bags and sacks
• Polystyrene
• Plastic toys
• Plant pots and seed trays
• Plastic furniture
• Coat hangers
• Coffee pods

Plastic is recycled and made into new products, such as fleeces, pillows or new plastic bottles. We can recycle any colour of plastic bottles and containers in West Sussex, but they should be clean, dry and loose.

Soft plastics such as bubble wrap, plastic bags and plastic film cannot be recycled at home. These items can be recycled at some supermarkets as part of their soft plastic recycling scheme. To find your nearest participating supermarket visit Recycle Now’s recycling locator.

Bioplastics (plastics made from plant or other biological material instead of petroleum) aren't recognised by our specialised sorting machinery, and should be placed in your rubbish bin.

Yes please:

• Food packaging sleeves
• Pringles tubes
• Egg boxes
• Cereal boxes
• Paper cups
• Newspapers and magazines
• Paperback books
• Envelopes and junk mail
• Office paper
• Greeting cards and wrapping paper (non-metallic)
• Telephone directories and Yellow Pages
• Catalogues

No thanks:

• Shredded paper
• Metallic wrapping paper
• Paper towels

Shredded paper cannot be recycled using your home bin. If it gets mixed with other materials, such as glass, it is difficult to remove during the sorting process and can ruin the quality of the glass. However, it can be accepted for recycling in the paper and cardboard container at your local recycling centre, or composted at home.

It is not necessary to remove windows from envelopes, or staples from paper, although tape should be removed from cardboard and wrapping paper.

Padded envelopes, such as Jiffy Bags, cannot be recycled due to the plastic lining inside, and should be put in your rubbish bin. Cards with a large amount of glitter, ribbons, bows or other adornments should also be placed in your rubbish bin. 

Yes please:

• Food and drink cans
• Pet food cans
• Biscuit and sweet tins
• Empty aerosol cans - deodorant sprays, hairspray cans and so on
• Metal bottle tops and lids

No thanks:

• Paint, chemical or engine oil tins
• Saucepans and utensils
• Electrical items
• Garden tools
• Gas canisters
• Batteries

It is important that cans don’t have any leftover food or liquid in them. This could spill out onto other recycling, preventing it from being recycled. In some cases it could even spread to all the other items in the recycling lorry.

All items placed in your recycling bin should be clean; a quick rinse will usually do. Items that have left over food or drink in them can ruin the quality of other items in your recycling bin. This can then in turn spoil the recycling in the recycling lorries and at the materials recycling facility (MRF). Items that are covered with leftover food and drink cannot be recycled.

All items placed in your recycling bin should be dry, and cans and bottles should not contain any liquid. Liquid will make any paper or cardboard in your recycling bin wet and it won't be able to be recycled. During the sorting process, wet paper and cardboard can also stick to the machinery, clogging it up, and to glass, meaning it can't be recycled.

No. Please do not put your recycling in plastic bags before putting it in your recycling bin as it cannot then be sorted by the MRF. Please place your recycling in your bin, clean, dry and loose.