RECYCLING DON’Ts

DO NOT try to recycle laminated foil pouches (often used for baby food and coffee), crisp packets, sweet wrappers, greetings cards with glitter (recycle non-glitter bits) or nail varnish bottles, which are too fiddly and small.

DON’T recycle sticky items, such as Post-it notes or brown paper tape (often used on packages).

WET wipes, tissues, cotton wool and nappies are considered contaminated and are not recyclable.

DON’T recycle glass cookware, as it melts at a different temperature to bottles and jars. BLACK plastic generally can’t be recycled, as it isn’t ‘seen’ by lasers at plants (but check with your local authority — a handful do accept it).

DON’T try to recycle food-smeared cardboard or paper (such as pizza boxes or paper plates). Paper absorbs oil and food residues, so tear out and bin contaminated portions (such as the cheesy pizza box lid) and recycle the clean remainder. DON’T recycle plastic toys. THERE’S no need to soak paper labels off metal cans.

POLYSTYRENE (used for packaging) is not commonly recycled — check with your local authority. DON’T recycle multi-pack yoghurt pots (the ones that snap off a main pack). They are usually made from different types of plastic, which makes them difficult to recycle. YOU can’t recycle the plastic/foil inner lid on plastic milk bottles.

DON’T recycle plastic cutlery or other small plastic items. According to Recycle Now, anything smaller than 40mm is easily lost in the recycling process. Biodegradable cutlery should also go in the bin because it can block the recycling process as it breaks down.

NEVER put textiles in a mixed recycling bin — it jams machinery at recycling plants and production has to stop to free the block.