Environment

Q1: Why can't I put paper in the green box anymore?

Paper now goes in the blue box, where it is collected with the cardboard. The paper and cardboard are both recycled in the same place.

Plastic bottles now take the place of the paper in the green box.

Both boxes are emptied into separate wheelie bins and then emptied into different compartments of a new recycling collection vehicle.

This makes it much quicker and easier to collect your recycling than the previous method of sorting the recycling by hand at the side of the road.

Q2:  Will my kerbside box recycling collection day change?

Most will. Collections days for kerbside box recycling and waste collections have been synchronised so that your recycling is collected every two weeks on the same day as your weekly household waste collection. Please see the new calendar for your collection dates.

Q3: What if I haven't received a blue box?

The blue and green recycling boxes are for houses or flats with four or less units in a block only. Please contact us if you have not received your blue box.

Q4: The vehicle collecting the recycling looks like a rubbish truck, is my recycling actually recycled?

The materials collected in your green and blue box are recycled.

We now collect more materials then we used to and need to use a new type of vehicle. These vehicles have two compartments. The green box and blue box are emptied into separate wheelie bins and then emptied into the different compartments of the new recycling collection vehicle.
Paper and card from the blue box go into the larger compartment and the glass, cans and plastic bottles go into the smaller compartments.

This makes it much quicker and easier to collect your recycling than the previous method of sorting the recycling by hand at the side of the road.

The materials are then compressed, to make space, and at the end of the collection round they are taken to a materials recycling facility at Rainham in Essex.

Q5: Where do the materials go after they have been picked up outside my house?

The materials from your blue box and green box are put into a different wheelie bin and then emptied into the new split bodied vehicle (see Q4).

The materials are then taken to a materials recycling facility at Rainham in Essex.

The table below shows what happens to each material:

Material	Taken to	Recycled into
Paper and card	Holmans, Chatham, Kent	Cardboard
Plastic bottles	Rainham, Essex	Plastics, fleeces, fences
Tins and cans	Corus & ALUCAN, South Wales	More tins and cans, car parts, aeroplane parts etc.
Mixed glass	Day Aggregates, Brentford	Used instead of virgin aggregate to build local roads
Textiles	Black Country Rags, West Bromwich	Reusable clothes are sent to Africa, un usable clothes are turned into cleaning rags.