The Kerbside Collection Scheme enables you to recycle paper and card using your green box, glass bottles and jars and cans in your blue box and mixed plastics in your black box. The tables below show you exactly what can and can't go in to the boxes. 

Collection Dates

To view the collection dates for your area please follow the link to the Recycling Home page for details.

Mixed Household Plastics - service commenced October 2009

Yes Please	No Thanks
Plastic Bottles inc Milk Cartons & Pop Bottles	Plastic Film
Yoghurt Pots	Carrier Bags
Margarine Tubs	Flexible Packing Covers
Ready Meal Trays	Polystyrene
Plastic Trays & Fruit Punnets

Please ensure you wash all your plastic & if possible squash your plastic bottles. Caps can be left on.

Green Box - Paper & Card

Yes Please	No Thanks
Telephone Directories including Yellow Pages	Drinks Cartons such as Tetra Paks
Writing Paper	Cardboard Milk Cartons
Newspapers & Magazines	Foil and foil lined packaging.
Junk Mail	Soap powder boxes
Cardboard packaging - all types
Greetings Cards
Catalogues

If you have any extra paper of card that won't fit into your box you can either tie it in a bundle or put it in a carrier bag next to the green box. Cardboard boxes must be flattened to no more than about one metre square. You can also use one of the 23 recycling banks around the District. Please do not use black bin liners or cardboard boxes to put out extra materials.

Blue Box - Glass & Cans

Yes Please	No Thanks
Glass Bottles & Jars	Milk Bottles, Bottle Tops and Lids
Jam Jars	Windows, Light Bulbs and Broken Glass
Food Jars	Drinks Glasses and Pyrex Dishes
Aluminium and steel cans inc  - Food cans - Pet food cans - Drinks cans - EMPTY aerosols	Crisp Packets, Sweet Wrappers and other foil lined packaging.
Clean Foil, eg washed takeaway containers	Pottery, Ceramics and Plastics

Extra cans can be put out in a carrier bag but all glass must go in the blue box for collection. We can't collect glass from carrier bags in case there is any broken glass that could injure one of our operatives. For this reason we also won't collect any material from boxes with broken glass in them. If you do have any broken bottles or jars, wrap them up and put them into your wheelie bin. Any extra glass can be taken to one of the 26 recycling banks around the District.

Please wash all your glass bottles, jars and cans and then try to squash any tins and cans if you are able, except aerosol cans. You do not need to remove labels. Please DO NOT pierce or squash aerosols.'

Frequently Asked Questions

See our page on Frequently Asked Questions for the answers to the following:-

• What do I do with the boxes?
• My boxes haven't been emptied - what can I do?
• I don't have any kerbside boxes - can I get some?
• Can I get help with my collections?
• What happens to the material you collect in the kerbside boxes?
• The Council gets paid for the material it collects so when will we get a reduction in our Council Tax?

Paper and Card

Paper and card is collected from the kerbside and delivered to the Potter Group Site in Selby to be bailed. At the paper mill the material is sorted to remove any contamination such as plastic and metals e.g. paperclips and staples. The paper and card is then shredded, pulped and mixed with water. The pulp is pressed though giant rollers that squeeze out the water and flatten it into sheets. The sheets are then dried and cut to size ready for sale. Newspapers and other paper and card products are bought from local shops and recycled using the kerbside collection scheme.

Glass

Glass bottles and jars are picked up from the kerbside and delivered to Rockware Glass in Knottingley. The different colours of glass are collected separately. The glass is then crushed and any contamination, such as caps and labels, is removed. The crushed glass or cullet is then mixed with some raw materials and melted in a furnace with a temperature of 1600 degrees C. The melted glass is poured into moulds and made into new bottles and jars ready to be re-filled and sold. The bottles and jars are then bought from local shops and recycled again using the kerbside collection scheme.

Cans

Mixed aluminium and steel cans are collected from the kerbside and stored at our depot before being transported to the re-processor. The scrap metal is then shredded into pieces the size of a 10p. The material is sorted to remove any contamination such as plastic or glass and 'de-coated' which removes the lacquer from any drinks cans. The pieces of metal are melted in a furnace at a temperature of 700 degrees C before being cooled and cut into 'ingots'. The ingots are then rolled flat and cut to size before being made into new cans. The cans are re-filled and bough from local shops before being recycled again using the kerbside collection scheme.

Plastics

The plastic will be bulked and bailed at the Potter Group site in Selby. It will then be transported to a sorting plant in Mansfield which was built specially to handle mixed plastics from Local Authorities. When the different types of plastic have been sorted the material is sold to UK markets for recycling.