Could you recycle more

Making better use of wheeled bin space

We currently recycle 55 per cent of our household waste, an increase from 54 per cent two years ago and 34 per cent in 2016. This puts us among the top recyclers nationally, and we’re thankful for everyone’s efforts to get us there, but we need to do even better to meet the Government's expectations and our own climate emergency goals.

We know we can get there, as we recently looked through blue bags put out for collection in certain streets and found 62 per cent of the average contents were recyclable materials. Just 38 per cent was non-recyclable rubbish.

While the borough’s overall recycling rate is much higher than this, this shows there’s still room for improvement – and this can easily be done with easy changes to how you dispose of waste every day.

If everyone in the borough recycled all they could, our recycling rate would be 70 per cent. This would be more than any council has achieved so far, so let's set our sights even higher.

Out of 333 councils in England, we’ve risen from 204th for recycling in 2018 to 42nd as of 2022, and we’re hoping for further progress when the next league table comes out. We could make the top 10 in future, but we need your help.

What was in the blue bags we looked at:

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Where it should have gone instead

Of the bags we sampled, 20 per cent of the contents was food waste, which should be put out for collection in food bins.

Some 11 per cent was paper, card and magazines, six per cent was plastic bottles, pots, tubs and trays and three per cent was tins, cans and aerosols – all of which should be collected at the kerbside from green recycling bags.

Meanwhile, 10 per cent was garden waste, which can be collected if you subscribe to the garden waste collection service or compost it at home.

Eight per cent was reusable textiles while four per cent was glass bottles and jars, which you can drop off at your local recycling bank. Clothes can also be sold, donated to charity or given away if they’re wearable.

Now’s the time to reduce your waste

We’ll be sharing more detailed information about our collection changes nearer the time, but you should think now about reducing your waste if you aren’t already.

Recycling more items from your blue rubbish bag is key, so look at every option - including our free, unlimited kerbside recycling bags, as well as food waste bins and garden waste collections.

You should make sure you have enough green bags to contain your extra recycling, though four should be enough for most households, and a food waste bin. These are available free of charge at collection points around the borough.

You can book a "click and tip" slot at the re3 Recycling Centres in Bracknell and Reading, and the re3 website has all kinds of handy hints on reducing, reusing and recycling the waste you generate.

You can also take your glass and textiles to your local recycling bank, and we offer a bulky items collection service for some larger items. You could consider donating to charity shops or selling or giving away items through social media groups.

Items like bubble wrap and soft plastics are recycled at many supermarkets in the borough. Visit the Recycle Now website for help finding your nearest collection point.

For more about recycling and reducing waste, visit our website and sign up for our fortnightly Rubbish and Recycling newsletters.

Help us get everyone on board

We know many of you are already doing all you can to reduce, reuse and recycle as much as possible, and we really appreciate your support.

If you know people who could benefit from help doing this, we’d be grateful if you could pass on some tips or tell them where they can get more information.