Green recycling bins, boxes and bags

Green recycling bins, boxes and bags are used for recycling paper, cardboard, drink and food cans and some plastic waste. Most households in Plymouth now have a green bin, green box or bag. For more information about recycling please visit our recycle for Plymouth pages.

What can I put in my green recycling container?

The following items can be placed in your green recycling bin, box or bag:

• newspaper, magazines, junk mail, printer paper, envelopes (including those with plastic windows)
• cardboard boxes, cardboard packaging (eg cereal boxes), greetings cards
• phone directories, catalogues and yellow pages
• all food and drinks cans (please rinse out, no need to remove paper labels)
• empty aerosol cans - please remove plastic lids before putting both the lid and aerosol can in your recycling container
• aluminium foil eg takeaway containers (please rinse out)
• plastic bottles (please remove tops and place separately in your green recycling container), plastic containers (eg yoghurt pots and margarine tubs) - please rinse out

You can also download information about the home recycling scheme from the documents table below.

When will my recycling container be collected?

Household recycling collections are made every other week. Visit the recycling calendar page for details. If you have just moved to the area or are unsure of your day of collection please contact us.

What happens if my recycling collection is missed?

There may be a number of reasons why we did not collect your recycling:

• it was not left at the boundary of your property
• it may contain items that should not be in your recycling container, for example, glass bottles and jars or plastic carrier bags
• it may be faulty, damaged or too heavy
• it was put out too late - after the crew had collected in your street
• the working day may not be finished
• there may have been no access either to the street or to the property
• it may not be the correct collection day for your property

If you believe your bin collection to have been missed through no fault of your own, please contact us and we will arrange for it to be emptied on the next working day.

You can help us by:

• making sure that your recycling has been put ready for collection in a place that is easy to get to, it should not be put out for collection any earlier than 6pm the evening before collection and any later than 6.30am on the scheduled collection day
• making sure that you are aware of your correct collection day. Leaving your recycling out at the wrong time could lead to a £50 fine, to check your collection day please contact us
• putting your recycling out on the right day after a bank/public holiday, as we will collect your recycling on a different day, these changes will be advertised on this website and in local publications
• reporting any missed recycling as soon as possible by contacting us

What happens if I have something large to dispose of?

Please see our bulky waste collections page for details of our special collections service or see our recycling centres page for details of our civic recycling sites where you can take along old bulky items yourself free of charge.

Documents

To view these documents you might need to download some software. Visit our downloads page for more information.

Home recycling scheme leaflet - information about how to recycle your household waste and what items can be put into your green recycling container. File format Adobe Acrobat (pdf) - 1.13MB

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