The things you never knew you could recycle

You’ve just about got your head around your day-to-day household recycling (that’s dry recycling, food waste and garden waste) but there’s a lot more you could be doing. Whether it’s through one of our services, or other organisations in your local area and beyond, we’ve put together some guidance to help you broaden your recycling even further. If you want to go the ‘extra mile’ by reducing what you waste and reusing items – we’ve got that covered too.

Recycling that might surprise you

If you think you can’t recycle something (however odd it is) set yourself a challenge to find out whether there is a way. We’ve found a few items (some unusual) that you can recycle, including how to go about it.

• Water filters: used cartridges (BRITA only) can either be reused or recycled; all you have to do is drop them off at your local collection point
• Coffee pods: do you use a coffee pod machine at home or at work? Don’t chuck your pods away, they can be recycled through our kerbside collection scheme with podback.
• Spectacles: take your pre-loved glasses into your local Specsavers and they’ll make them into glasses and sunglasses for people in need overseas
• Wine corks: if you take your natural (not synthetic) corks into your nearest Majestic store, they’ll give them to the Eden Project, where they'll be used to enrich soils and protect roots
• Plastic wrapping: bread bags, frozen food bags, crisp packets, pet food pouches, loo roll wrap and chocolate wrappers can be recycled at 4000 supermarkets. 311,000 tonnes of this gets placed on our shop shelves, but only 6% of it gets recycled

Our recycling centres accept more than you might think

You can also always visit our Household Recycling Centres (Tidy tips) where we accept lots of items you might not be aware of, including:

• Hard plastics (such as bins, buckets and pipes)
• Light bulbs (including fluorescent tubes)
• Household furniture
• Printer cartridges
• Carpets and underlays
• CDs and DVDs
• Paint and paint tins.

And, did you know we have our very own reuse shop? It’s based at our Thorn Turn Household Waste Recycling Centre, and accepts (and sells) bikes, kitchenware, toys and lots more.

Clothing, shoes and textiles

With cheap clothing readily available on the high streets and online, it’s easy to be tempted into constantly revamping your wardrobe. But remember that ‘fast fashion’ adds to the waste problem, amounting to a staggering 350,000 tonnes of wearable clothing sent to landfill. That’s equivalent to £140 million in value every year.

Keeping clothing, shoes and textiles (like sheets, blankets and towels) in use, and out of the bin – couldn’t be easier.

• In Central Bedfordshire we collect clean, dry and reusable items. Simply put them in a carrier bag and place it next to your bin on collection day
• You can drop off unwanted items at recycling points and clothing and textile banks in supermarket and local car parks or pop them into your local high street charity shops
• You can even post your donations to The British Heart Foundation for free!

Furniture, appliances, and household goods

There are many ways to recycle and reuse furniture, appliances and household goods. Whichever route you choose, you’re helping to keep items out of landfill for longer and reducing the amount of waste you create.

• For things like beds, wardrobes, fridges, washing machines, TVs and smaller electrical items that are in a reasonable condition and still working you could try donating these to local charity organisations, like Emmaus, Preen and Freegle
• We collect and recycle small electrical items, such as bedside lamps, kettles and telephones – plus household batteries
• There are lots of online marketplaces where you can sell your unwanted items to make a bit of money. Car boot sales can also be fun too. Something you might consider worthless may be considered valuable to someone else.

To find out more

To find out more about our full waste and recycling services and learn more about where all of your recycling goes visit our website. You can also try our A-Z of recycling to check different items and what can be done with them.