Kirsty Warren
Recycle this…

recycle plastic bags

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.

Which plastic is recyclable plastic?

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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.

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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.

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.