As many households may be carrying out their spring clear-out, they need to be aware of the new recycling bin regulations.
A set of new recycling rules came into effect across England on March 31, meaning there are certain things that can no longer be placed in your recycling bins, or you could risk them not being collected. This new Simpler Recycling scheme has many benefits, but it’s hard to ignore that it’ll also make decluttering harder.
Under Simpler Recycling rules, councils and waste collectors are no longer required to pick up certain items from household recycling bins.
This will have an impact on recycling materials commonly found around your home and even in your garden.
Here are the common household items that are an absolute no-no to put in your recycling bins.
Irons
A huge amount of electrical items are purchased each year, and currently, only a small proportion, particularly small items, are collected for recycling.
Unwanted electrical items like an iron should not be put in the bin – if your iron is faulty and can’t be donated, you can drop items off at your local Recycling Centre.
Candles
Most UK local authorities say they accept clean glass bottles and jars in household recycling. Candle jars feel like they should fit into this category, but there are a couple of issues that have led to them being banned from your recycling now.
Candle jars often contain leftover wax, soot and metal wick holders, and many have stickers, glued decorations or mixed-material lids attached.
What’s more, some jars are made from heat-resistant glass that melts at a different temperature to normal packaging glass.
From a waste-reduction point of view, the best option is nearly always to reuse the jar rather than rely on recycling.
You can turn old candle jars into a few things:
- Containers for refilled candles
- Bathroom storage for cotton buds or toothbrushes
- Desk pots for pens and pencils
- Small plant pots (with a bit of drainage added)
Light bulbs and tubes
With the dazzling range of lighting available, recycling lights and light bulbs can be confusing.
All domestic light bulbs and tubes can be reused or recycled, but definitely not in your household waste or recycling.
The reason for this is that some light bulbs contain potentially dangerous substances such as mercury. Remove all bulbs from their fittings when recycling them.
Vases
While you might think that vases would be ideal for glass recycling, you’d be mistaken. It’s recommended that you forgo putting vases in with regular glass recycling.
This is because they can be made up of different glass compositions, just like drinking glasses. As a result it can cause problems at the remelting stage of the recycling process.
If you have vases to get rid of, donate them to a charity shop or see if a friend or a family member will take them off your hands.
Mirrors
Mirrors often come with metallic coating, this is why they cannot be placed into a glass recycling bin. The coating will contaminate pure glass products that can be recycled.
What you should do is take the mirror to your local recycling centre. Either way, it will be processed and disposed of responsibly.
Alternatively, if the mirror is in good condition, you can give it to a charity shop or see if a friend or family member could make use of it instead.
