Recycle this…

Recycling tips for West Sussex

WSCC Recycling Ambassador Colin McFarlin regularly shares his knowledge with the community on the tricky matter of recycling in our domestic blue bins. We, here at Hurst Life, will be collecting all his invaluable tips and tricks and displaying them here on this handy online guide. We aim to add a new recycling tip every month, so be sure to check back.
All the information collected here was correct at the time it went to press. To check it is still correct please email the editor at editor@hurstlife.co.uk.

Important note: All items for recycling should be:

• Clean - free from food and drink leftovers

• Dry - keep your recycling bin lid shut

• Loose - no plastic bags.

Did you know that you now need to book an appointment to visit a recycling centre in West Sussex?

This is to cut down on long queues and give our staff more time to offer help and give you recycling advice. Here are the key points...
- Appointments are available 14 days in advance. www.westsussex.gov.uk/BookToRecycle
- You need to provide the registration number of the vehicle you will be attending the centre in when you book. If you are hiring a vehicle and this is unknown, you will be asked to show the hire paperwork at the centre.
- You need to provide the registration number of the vehicle you will be attending the centre in when you book. If you are hiring a vehicle and this is unknown, you will be asked to show the hire paperwork at the centre.
- Anyone using a Recycling Centre is still required to provide proof of residency in West Sussex. You will still need to show one form of identification.

Cans, tins & packs

Large household waste

Small electricals

Reducing black bin waste

Which plastic is recyclable plastic?

Till receipts

Acrylic paint

plastic and metal lids - new update Feb 23

General bin etiquette

Unwanted medicines

Plastic flower pots

Clothing and old rags

Metal milk bottle tops

Biodegradable and compostable materials

Aluminium foil

Soft plastic bags and packets

Wrapping paper, glitter and seasonal - MINOR UPDATE NOV 22

Old computer cables and IT

Light bulbs and florescent lamps

Home Coffee Pods

Books

Toys

Cosmetic tubes

Candle Wax

Food waste

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Food waste

Food waste collections

In West Sussex, food waste makes up a staggering 40% of the average household general black top waste bin. So, it makes sense to collect this waste separately as it is then easier to recycle.

The Government announced on 25th March 2024 that funding is available to local councils to fund the collection of food waste.
The good news is that Mid Sussex District Council will receive a grant of £1,041,808 following a successful application for funds. Councils in England will be supported with up to £295 million in funding to introduce weekly food waste collections by 31st March 2026, providing new food waste containers for homes and specialist collection vehicles.

Collections of food waste from every household will prevent contamination of other waste which could then be usefully recycled

Composting

Of course, you can compost lots of your food waste at home. You can use a plastic compost bin bought from WSCC. Here – www.bit.ly/4abK98s – you will also find lots of useful information on composting. You also can buy one from garden centres, or make one from timber.

Success with a compost heap does require a little simple planning. A good procedure is to keep food scraps consisting of vegetables, tea bags, and fruit and transfer them every couple of days to your garden compost bin. You then add grass cuttings in roughly equal portions and that is it.

By not adding meat or fish it does not attract rats.

This simple mixture breaks down quickly and so twice a year, you can empty the compost bin to use the contents as compost for the garden.

So, whilst we are awaiting the start of food waste collection by MSDC, you could try a compost heap for your own compost. If it works out well for you, then you can use the MSDC collection for meat and fish and any excess food waste, when the collection commences.

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Toys

When it comes to toys that your children are no longer interested in, or have grown out of, consider donating good condition toys to a local preschool, parent-toddler group or charity shop.

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Any broken or damaged toys can be taken to your local Repair Café (Hassocks Repair Café can be found here) to find out if they can be repaired.

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Finally, you can recycle them at our Recycling Centres, but please remove batteries if they have them, and put these in the battery recycling area, to reduce the possibility of fires.

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Books

Do you have shelves full of books, hardbacks and paperbacks, that you will not read or use for reference? They are there because, well, that is where they have been for years!

Well first of all, do look at all your books. Do you have any really old books? They could have a value. I had a copy of ‘When You Were Very Young’ by A A Milne. I contacted Jonkers Rare Books online and they paid me £20. I paid for postage and they paid £20 into my bank account.

Another option is to download an app from www.Ziffit.com. This will allow you to scan your books and tell you instantly if it has a value. For example, James Patterson’s The Ninth Month = 60p, and Lynne Truss, Eats Shoots and Leaves = 53p. Imagine what a whole shelf is worth?

Another site to try is www.webuyanybooks.co.uk. This website specialises in those big expensive academic tomes. Happy scanning.

And finally, if they cannot go to a charity shop, or you cannot sell them, you can take them to the Household Waste Recycling Centre – ‘The Tip’ to you and I. There is a special bin just for books, all will be recycled.

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Plastic and metal lids

Confusingly, different manufacturers have different instructions on their packaging - some say take lids off and some say leave them on. This is down to different councils have different recycling methods, and some can accept tops left on. (There are 338 collection authorities in England, 32 in London alone!)

RECYCLING UPDATE: Our message has always been to take the tops off plastic containers before recycling. All this changed from 1st September 2022 as we have improved our recycling process. If you live in West Sussex, you can now recycle, in your kerbside recycling bin, plastic bottles, plastic milk bottles, tetra packs and ketchup bottles. Any plastic bottle you did recycle before without the lid, can now be recycled with the plastic lid on. It does not matter what type of plastic the top is made of; we can even accept trigger sprays on plastic bottles.

The rules we have in West Sussex regarding tops is:

METAL BOTTLE TOPS: any colour - can go into your blue top recycling bin, any size from small beer bottle tops to big jar tops.

PLASTIC BOTTLE TOPS: any colour - can go into your blue top recycling bin.

If a lid is discarded in the old way into your black top bin - do not despair! As we extract all the bits of plastic and paper from the black bin and turn it into RDF - Refuse Derived Fuel. These are fuel pellets that are then used in industry in place of fossil fuels! So none of your plastic will end up in landfill from WSCC.

However, did you know milk bottle tops are collected by charities?
Many of you collected milk bottle tops for the League of Friends at Princess Royal Hospital. They have stopped collecting and no longer have a bin in the hospital.
Instead, here are some of the places that still collect milk bottle tops. Remember only clean milk bottle tops, any colour. No other tops please.
Lindfield – outside The Stand Up – Terracycle bin, for the benefit of Great Ormond Street Hospital. Haywards Heath Town Council Office, same charity.
Bay Tree Café in Haywards Heath, in the Orchards Shopping Centre.
Cuckfield – Second Saturday of every month at the food market held at the Rose & Crown car park. Hurstpierpoint – Village Centre (Library) – Hurst ReThink collection box support GOSH.
The United Reformed Church - in the center of Hassocks village have a collection box

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Recycling home page

Light bulbs and florescent lamps

What we call a light bulb, is referred to as a lamp by the lighting industry. Compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) are low energy light bulbs. Compact LED bulbs can look very similar to CFLs, this means you can change to LEDs without having to change your light fittings. CFL’s use up to 80% less energy than old fashioned incandescent bulbs, but to do this, they need a small amount of mercury which is why they can’t be thrown away in your Kerbside bins.

The typical amount of mercury in a lamp is between 1.2 to 4mg, and in a domestic compact florescent lamp (CFL) this equates to the tip of a ballpoint pen. The mercury in one CFL is not enough to pose a health risk but they do need to be disposed of responsibly to reduce the risk of large quantities of mercury ending up in landfill.

In the UK, the collection and recycling of fluorescent lamps is compulsory under the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive. If we all recycle, we can protect our environment, and the mercury, glass and metal can be reused. If you want to know how, have a look at: www.recolight.co.uk How can we recycle? Save up your light bulbs and tubes and take them with you next time you are making a journey to your council recycling centre (AKA The Tip!).

Some electrical retailers offer a recycling service. Robert Dyas is one, but I am sure there are others. When you buy your next light bulb do ask if they offer a recycling scheme.

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Recycling home

Which plastic is recyclable plastic?

I am often asked ‘What plastic can I recycle in my blue top bin?’

If you remember bottles, tubs and trays you will not go wrong. All of these can be recycled in your blue top bin. Colour is not an issue – any colour, including black. If you can remove the label do so, but if you cannot, our system can, it just saves us a job.

Plastic trays - these are the trays that vary from the trays you find in chocolates and biscuits, very flimsy, right through to the plastic trays food is sold on, more solid and robust. The good news is ALL these plastic trays can be recycled by West Sussex, but it is not the same in other counties across the UK!

Plastic lids - we can recycle plastic lids, but it does depend on size. I usually say jam jar size is a minimum. Smaller lids can go in your black top bin. Milk bottle tops can be given to charity.

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So why is plastic so complicated? There are over 40,000 different types of plastic, all grouped into seven resin codes.

So, there are many types of plastic in each code. Here are my five simple rules to what you can put into your kerbside recycling bin.

1. The symbol you find on plastic is nothing to do with recycling, it is one of the 7 resin codes – ignore it!

2. Is it a plastic bottle, tub, pot or tray from your bathroom or kitchen? (Plant pots are from your garden so cannot go into your recycling bin – B&Q operates a recycling scheme for them, as do some garden centres).

3. We accept any colour and any thickness.

4. Plastic should be clean, dry and loose and with the tops off. Why? The top is often a different plastic to the bottle, and they get mixed up with other recycling streams.

5. If plastic bottle tops are smaller than jam jar lid size – put into rubbish bin or give to a charity that collects bottle tops. Why? In our sorting process, small items of plastic contaminate our sorted glass. Recycling made simple.

If still in doubt, do look up online at this address: www.recycleforwestsussex.org and search under A-Z of recycling, or write to me with a picture.

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Recycling home page

General bin etiquette

Whilst many of us have been in lockdown, we have had an opportunity to declutter rooms, garages, or sheds. Under normal circumstances we would take the clutter to charity shops or to the HWRS (Household Waste Recycling Site), the TIP.

I would ask you not to simply dump all your declutter into your black top kerbside rubbish bin. Declutter is not household waste.

The Household Waste Recycling Site (the Tip)
Did you know that 80% of what you take to the Tip is recycled?

First organise all the rubbish at home for the Tip into different waste streams into boxes, so disposing is easy when he gets there!

Also remember to take your ID to show you are a West Sussex resident.

Your general waste bin

- Try to put as little as possible in this bin – can anything be reused?

- Bag or double bag all food waste.

- Check what can be recycled and put this clean, dry and loose into your recycling bin. Check this site for what can be recycled – more than you think - www.recycleforwestsussex.org

Your recycling bin

We want you to keep recycling, and you will need to get as much as possible in your bin.

- Cut up or rip up cardboard to cereal box size – great stress relief

- Plastics, squash or open out

- Do not leave recycling next to bin. They will not take it as there is a handling risk.

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Recycling home page

Small electrical recycling service

Everything with a plug, battery or cable has the potential to be recycled. If you have an individual kerbside rubbish collection, you can recycle old or broken small electrical items at the kerbside.

Currently this service is not available if your bins are located in a communal bin store. You can find alternative electrical recycling options using the following link: https://bit.ly/2LcKBO3

How does the kerbside collection work? Most unwanted or broken small electrical appliances, those items powered by batteries or with a plug, cable or lead can be recycled at the kerbside. Small electrical appliance recycling is collected every two weeks with your normal scheduled rubbish collection.

• Little and Often - Please recycle “little and often” as space is limited on our collection vehicles for the storage of electrical items

• Bag It - Simply place the item(s) into a standard carrier size plastic bag (no larger than 35 x 40cm and not in black bin bags)

• Tie It – Securely tie the bag so the items do not fall out

• Recycle It - Place next to your black lidded rubbish bin on your scheduled collection day

For any items not on our kerbside collections checklist, please visit www.recycleyourelectricals.org.uk to find your nearest reuse or recycling point.

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Recycling home page

Large household waste

Large items such as furniture and white goods can be tricky to dispose of, especially if you don’t have access to a van.
Did you know that Mid Sussex District Council provides a collection and disposal service? It is a chargeable service. For details see: MSDC Waste Removal.

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Recycling home page