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

• All types of plastic bottles (drinks, cleaning and milk). Remove the lids to rinse them, squash the air out and replace the lid.
• Yoghurt pots, plastic punnets, plastic food trays, plastic tubs such as margarine.
• Tip: please rinse all plastic food and drinks packaging and remove plastic film.
• We do not accept plastic bags, film, bin liners, pet food / compost bags or polystyrene

If you are unsure about an item, please visit our email the recycling team: recycling@tewkesbury.gov.uk, tweet us at @tewkesburyBCgov, or call us on 01684 295010.

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.

Small electricals recycling service

You can recycle small appliances, children’s toys, mobile and digital phones, cameras, games consoles, tablets, e-readers, fairy lights, electrical cables and chargers.

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, or to residents using communal bins.

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 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.

Other ways to recycle your old electricals