Plastic bags and your mixed recycling bin

From the 9 November 2015 we will not be accepting plastic carrier bags in your mixed recycling bin.

To remind you we will be placing a ‘no plastic carrier bags’ sticker on your mixed recycling bin.  At the same time we will also be attaching an informative hanger too remind you of what can be recycled in your green food caddy and dark grey mixed recycling bin.

Why the change?

From the beginning of October 2015 large shops have been charging shoppers at least 5p for each single-use carrier bag they use, as a result of recent legislation designed to deter their use. We encourage you to shop with reusable bags, it’s better for the environment and it will save you money.

We also need to improve the quality of your dry mixed recycling (glass, cans, plastics & cartons) and make it more marketable in what is currently a very challenging marketplace. Plastic bags hamper the automatic detection and separation of different polymers at many sorting facilities. This slows down the process and hence increases processing cost.

These two things combined has led the council to review its acceptance of plastic bags in the mixed recycling, so from the 9 November 2015 we will no longer accept plastic carrier bags in the mixed recycling bin.

Please do however continue to recycle all your plastic bottles, pots, tubs and trays, plus all the other items you can put in your mixed recycling bin, including glass bottles & jars, cans, foil, aerosols and cartons (foil & wax lined). See what can go into your mixed recycling bin, and the items we don't want in this bin.

What can you do with carrier bags?

If you do happen to buy carrier bags, or keep a stock at home, you should consider a number of alternative uses, such as:

• Reuse them on your next shopping trip
• Use them as waste bin liners / sacks
• Use them to contain pet waste
• Recycle them at the next trip to the supermarket (most supermarkets have a carrier bag recycling point in-store)
• As a last resort, place them in your green refuse bin.

Thank you for your co-operation