Plastics - what can and can't be recycled

1.  KERBSIDE COLLECTION

At present, it's BOTTLES ONLY

Absolutely nothing else

NO Tetrapaks (drinks cartons).  There is a skip for these at the Ferry Centre car park in Summertown and at Redbridge Recyling centre.

TOPS of plastics bottles

These are not really wanted in our kerbside collection and are classed as 'contamination' in this instance, although the City Council does say they can be included in order not to put people off recycling.

If you'd like to make good use of the green tops used for milk cartons, there is a kind person at 15 Bateman Street, Headington, who collects them for a charity that sells them to raise funds for research into eyesight problems (but green tops for milk cartons  ONLY).

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2.  REDBRIDGE

At Redbridge waste & recycling centre, the ONLY plastics they want are those that bear either of the two symbols shown on the right.

You'll find that this means largely BOTTLES, as many of the other plastics (eg yogurt pots, cottage cheese pots, food trays) either have no symbol on them at all (which shows that they can't be reprocessed anywhere by any process, at least at present) or they have other numbers on, indicating that they are NOT the kind of plastic that the Waste Contractors that service the Redbridge skips deal with.

If you find this hard to believe because you've seen people lobbing all sorts of plastic into the skips at Redbridge, see the County Council's Plastics Info Sheet.

There is a separate skip for Tetrapaks at Redbridge and now also one for aerosols

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3. CAR PARK RECYCLING SKIPS

The contractors who empty the recycling skips in supermarket car parks have nothing to do with either the City Council (responsible for kerbside collections) or the County Council (who own the Redbridge site and engage contractors to manage the waste skips).  Consequently the same rules re plastics do not necessarily apply. 

It is very difficult to find out exactly what is acceptable in these car park skips, as neither the City nor the County Council can provide information.  However, one thing is certain: if there is NO recycling symbol at all on plastic, it CANNOT be recycled and should be put into your green wheelie, not into any recycling skip.

More news here as soon as it becomes available...