Kirsty Warren
Recycle this…

Recycling guide

Home coffee pods

Do you enjoy a cup of coffee at home, maybe you have a coffee machine that takes coffee pods? Let me introduce you to a new free recycling scheme ‘Podback’.

Podback is a coffee pod recycling service. Created in partnership with the biggest names in coffee pod systems, Nespresso, Nescafe, Dolce Gusto and Tassimo, to give people who enjoy the quality and taste of coffee pods a simple and easy way to recycle them. Just look up: www.podback.org and order some bags.

The bags are free. I order five at a time. Unfortunately, Mid Sussex District Council do not offer the kerbside option. You simple drop your used pods into the bag, which self-seals and return it freepost.

Another alternative to reduce plastic why not consider using stainless steel coffee capsules available for many machines? This way you can use you own favourite coffee. They are food grade stainless steel and easy to clean.

Soft plastic bags and packets

You can now recycle a lot more soft plastics than crisp packets and stretchy plastic at many supermarket stores (www.shorturl.at/cekFR).

Soft plastics are lightweight plastics that cannot be placed in recycling bins at home. Think plastic film lids on yoghurt pots, soft fruit punnets and ready meals, as well as plastic crisp packets, pasta bags and chocolate or biscuit wrappers.

All major supermarkets are offering this service: Co-op, Tesco, Waitrose, Morrisons and Sainsburys. When you get into the swing of it, you will be taking a carrier bag full of recycling to the supermarket every time you visit!

Additional: Please bear in mind supermarkets do move around their recycling bins, so if you cannot find it do ask in store, and your local store may be different.
Waitrose – At the far end of the store after the checkouts by the café.
Robert Dyas – offers battery recycling by the entrance door.
Boots – On the right as you step inside.
Marks and Spencer – Behind the checkout desks.

WSCC recycling your ‘hard’ plastic (bottles, tubs and trays etc) and the supermarkets accepting your ‘soft’ plastic (bags, packets). All the plastic packaging you get from Supermarkets can now be recycled!

But what happens to it? Soft plastic can now be recycled via physical recycling which turns it into other items such as heavy-duty outdoor plastic furniture and roads; and chemical recycling, which turns it back into oil, that can be used for making new plastic resins for fuel and other purposes. Please also support your local Terracycle collection teams. www.terracycle.com/en-GB/brigades will show you where and what you can recycle, for the benefit of a local charity or school. The Stand Up Inn and Lindfield Primary Academy are prime examples in Lindfield.

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The cereal manufacturers are changing their packaging so the good news is that some liners can be recycled with carrier bags at larger stores.
You will need to look at the cardboard outer, and the recycling instructions on the cardboard outer of individual packets. Some manufacturers, and these include Kelloggs, Nestle and Sainsburys’ own brand are changing the composition of the liner to a recyclable plastic and the instructions on the box have been changed to reflect this, and now tell you that the inner liner can now be ‘recycle with carrier bags at larger stores’. What this means is that these inner wrappers can now be put into the plastic bag recycling bins at most large supermarket stores.

Please make sure these are all empty and clean so they can be recycled! So now you recycle your soft plastic, that cannot be recycled by WSCC, at your supermarket.

Old computer cables and IT

Have a clear out of all those old IT items and cables sitting in a drawer or box. MSDC will collect small electrical items and recycle them. Kerbside collections of small electrical appliances and household batteries are every two weeks.

Items should be left out with your scheduled black lid rubbish bin. Collection space on the bin lorry is very limited. If your collection is missed, please hold on to your items and place them out with your next scheduled black top rubbish bin.

Keep the cable with the item. Little and often, in a plastic carrier bag helps. Recycling – take data cables, phones, tablets and desktop PCs to Vodafone stores.

Items accepted are: small electrical appliances such as IT and smart devices like desktop PCs; laptops; tablets; fax machines; printers; phones; smartphones; smart speakers and fitness wearables.

Repair – does your local Repair Café repair electrical items?

Recycling – take to your local recycling centre – the tip. Did you know that all electricals taken to the tip are recycled? To find your nearest local electrical recycling site, I would recommend this website: www.recycleyourelectricals.org.uk Do use the filter option: by item/ distance, for lots more options; donate; repair; recycle.

Wrapping paper, glitter and seasonal

Wrapping paper – do the scrunch test – if it stays scrunched it can be recycled in your kerbside bin.


If it springs open it contains plastic and can be recycled at major supermarkets in their plastic bag recycling bins.

Always remove large bows and as much Sellotape as possible.

Had a real Christmas tree? www.midsussex.gov.uk/tree-recycling

Artificial trees – Take to the tip. Normal ones in the waste container bay please, fibre optic ones in the electricals container bay. Broken toys – if they cannot be fixed by yourself – or at a Repair Café – take to the tip.

In your blue top recycling bin:

  • Celebratory sweet and chocolate tins and tubes – metal, cardboard or paper can all be recycled in your recycling bin

  • Glass bottles, beer, wine and champagne. Without the tops please. Metal tops can go in the recycle bin separately. (Plastic tops and corks in the black top rubbish bin)

  • Mince pie plastic trays and the foil trays

  • Black plastic food trays can be recycled in West Sussex

Disposable plastic plates and cutlery – try to avoid as they will have to go in your black top rubbish bin.

Things to take to the tip:

  • Broken crockery or cups – it happens at parties!

  • Tinsel and baubles

  • Christmas fairy lights – these are classed as WEEE (Waste Electrical items)

Remember you will need to show you are a resident of West Sussex to use the Tip. Don’t forget your ID.

Please do not place batteries in your general rubbish bin or your recycling bin. Please recycle them at shops that sell batteries. All shops that sell batteries have to provide, by law, battery recycling points, and these are generally found near the checkout.

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