Ensuring that all residents’ waste ends its journey (and hopefully begins a new one) in the correct recycling stream is a priority for Warwickshire County Council’s Waste and Recycling Team.
There are certain items that are notoriously difficult to recycle, but in Warwickshire every effort is made to ensure that these items are not lost to general waste and can undergo some degree of component reclamation.
Each item that residents recycle is one less item that ends its journey in Warwickshire. Through reducing the amount of rubbish that is sent to incineration or landfill, the demand on the environment to keep mining and drilling for new materials is minimised.
To help with this, the Council’s Waste Team are sharing some of the items that they regularly get questions about and exactly where these can be taken for disposal.
Medicine blister packs – In Warwickshire, any paper or card packaging from medicines can be recycled through kerbside collections and household waste recycling centres. However, local councils do not offer the recycling of blister packs using the standard kerbside or HWRC routes. Due to their small size, lightweight nature, and composite materials of plastic and metal, blister packs are challenging to separate and recycle effectively from mixed kerbside bins.
To address this challenge, some high street retailers offer an in-store blister pack recycling scheme. Boots are the latest store to launch this service, joining Superdrug pharmacy stores, the Aldi Eco Concept store in Leamington Spa and the Climate Hub in Stratford. Some doctors’ clinics, pharmacies and veterinary practices may also offer this service.
Batteries – This is an important one, as batteries can be very environmentally damaging and pose a fire risk if they are disposed of incorrectly and also contain lots of important heavy metals that can be re-used. The good news is that both car batteries and household batteries can be taken to your local household waste recycling centre and household batteries can also be disposed of at most high street retailers.
Coffee Pods – The Council has added used coffee pods to the items collected at the Judkins Recycling Centre in Nuneaton, in partnership with Podback, the pod recycling service. Read more: https://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/news/article/5380/recycle-your-coffee-pods-at-nuneatons-judkins-recycling-centre
For residents living in Warwick and Stratford Districts, Coffee pods can be recycled in special bags at the kerbside. More details on this can be found here: https://www.stratford.gov.uk/waste-recycling/coffee-pod-recycling-with-podback.cfm
Paint Cans – Warwickshire’s household waste recycling centres will take these, but residents must remove the lids of all the containers; allow the paint to solidify over 48 hours or longer, top up each container with an absorbent material like sand, soil, sawdust or cat litter and dispose of the solidified paint in their kerbside residual waste bin or can be taken to your local household waste recycling centre.
Plastic Wrap – Leading supermarket groups are taking back clean plastic film at their larger stores. This is normally at the in-store carrier bag recycling points. Participating stores include Asda, Sainsbury, Co-op, Tesco, Morrisons and Waitrose. If you live in Warwick District, these items are now collected kerbside.
These locations will usually accept any low-density polyethylene (LDPE) film (which is sometimes marked with a number 4) such as plastic wrappers from bakery goods, plastic breakfast cereal liners, plastic toilet roll wrappers, plastic bags from fruit and veg, plastic carrier bags, plastic bread bags, plastic freezer bags, plastic magazine wrap and plastic shrink wrap.
Cllr Heather Timms, portfolio holder for Environment and Heritage and Culture said: “Making it easier for our residents to correctly dispose of those hard-to-recycle items is a key step towards a brighter and greener future.
“By recycling as much packaging as possible, Warwickshire householders can contribute to a county that is sustainable now and for future generations.”
Information about the recycling centres and booking can be found at www.warwickshire.gov.uk/hwrc
Residents can Follow Warwickshire Recycles on social media for daily tips:
- On Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/warwickshire_recycles/
- On Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/warwickshirerecycles
Residents can find out where their recycling goes and the types of products it goes on to be remade into by visiting www.warwickshire.gov.uk/whereitgoes
For more information about how Warwickshire County Council is facing the challenges of the climate change emergency, visit: https://www.sustainablewarwickshire.co.uk/