Recycling and food waste

Recycling (blue bin) collection service

Your recycling is collected every two weeks.

Please make sure your containers are out by 7am on the day of collection.

• Download our guide to our recycling service

What can I put into my blue bin?

Card and cardboard

• Card and cardboard (no dirty cardboard – takeaway pizza boxes and burger cartons).
• Greetings cards and postcards.
• Food packaging boxes and egg boxes.
• Small quantities of brown corrugated cardboard.

Cartons

• Tetra-Pak style food and drink cartons.
• Paper yoghurt pots.
• Paper ice-cream pots.

Metal packaging: Cans, tins, foil and aerosols

• Aerosols (empty).
• Biscuit and sweet tins.
• Food and drink cans (please rinse to remove food residue).
• Pet food cans (please rinse to remove food residue).
• Aluminium foil (clean sheets only, Please dispose of foil that can’t be washed).
• Aluminium foil pots and trays (clean containers only please).
• Tip: Aluminium stays scrunched when you squeeze it. If it opens, it’s non-recyclable plastic.

Mixed glass containers

• Clean glass bottles (any colour).
• Clean glass jars (any colour).
• Tip: metal lids can also be put into the blue bin.

Mixed paper

• Books (remove hardback covers).
• Envelopes (Not padded types such as Jiffy bags).
• Newspaper, magazines and junk mail (no wet or dirty paper, remove plastic wrapping and freebies).
• Office style paper and small amounts of loose shredded paper.
• Yellow Pages and telephone directories.
• Wrapping paper (paper-based only. No plastic lamination, no glitter or decorations. No wallpaper).

Plastic containers and packaging

When?

Fortnightly: wheeled bin for the collection of cardboard, mixed paper, cartons, food/drink cans, foil, empty aerosols, glass, plastic bottles, pot, tubs and trays.

What do we want?

Plastic bottles

• Clear/coloured plastic bottles
• Detergent bottles
• Hand soap bottles
• Cleaning product bottles (e.g. bleach bottles and bathroom cleaners. The bottle triggers can be left on.)
• Skin care product bottles
• Shampoo and shower gel bottles
• Milk bottles
• Fizzy and non fizzy drinks and water bottles

Plastic packaging

• Pots, e.g. yoghurt, soup
• Tubs, e.g. margarine, ice cream
• Trays or punnets, e.g. raw or cooked meat trays; take away trays, fruit and veg trays
• Chocolate and biscuit tubs and trays
• Other clear or black plastic packaging

What don’t we want?

• Batteries
• Vapes
• Crisp packets
• Pre-prepared salad bags
• Film lids from pots or trays
• Black polystyrene trays
• Medicine packs e.g. headache pills
• Plastic film/wrappers/bags*
• Pet food pouches
• Paint pots
• Plastic toys
• Plastic plant pots
• Bubble wrap
• Plastic bottles containing chemicals e.g. anti-freeze
• Polystyrene packaging

* Plastic bags cannot be recycled through the kerbside recycling collection services. However, some local supermarkets have recycling collection points in store: check if your local store recycles bags.

If you are unsure about an item, please visit our email the recycling team: recycling@tewkesbury.gov.uk, send us a direct message through our social media channels, or call us on 01684 295010.

Textiles

Please use the Waste Wizard to find out where you can recycle your textiles.

What do I do if I need an additional blue recycling bin or food caddy?

If you have extra recycling, additional blue recycling bins and food caddies can be ordered free of charge online using our self-service portal, under the ‘request it’ tab.

What happens to the recycling?

Find out more about what happens to your recycling at the Gloucestershire Recycles website.

Small electricals recycling service

The majority of residents can recycle small appliances, children’s toys, mobile and digital phones, cameras, games consoles, tablets, e-readers, fairy lights, electrical cables and chargers from the kerbside.

No thanks: Please do not leave TVs, monitors, light bulbs, fluorescent tubes or anything larger than a carrier bag in size. These can be taken to a Household Recycling Centre.

Use an old carrier bag to recycle small electrical items but please don’t tie the top. Put the bag next to your blue bin.

Please note – at present the small electricals collection service is not available to properties on our ‘narrow access’ rounds as the vehicles do not the space to have a collection cage attached to them. This also applies to our smaller 22 tonne vehicles.

Regretfully we cannot collect small electricals from communal bin sheds.

Occasionally our vehicles may be too full to collect your small electricals. Please take them back in and put them back out for collection next time.

Please consider using local repair cafes, these are usually held monthly in Tewkesbury, Churchdown, Brockworth and Bishop’s Cleeve.

Alternatively, donating unwanted electrical items that are in working condition to a local charity, or continue to take broken electrical and electronic items to your closest Household Recycling Centre.

Did you know that every B&Q also has a drop-off point for broken or unwanted small electricals and lightbulbs too?

Other ways to recycle your old electricals