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How to recycle

Everyone across the city is encouraged to recycle as much as they possibly can.  We will help you to do this by providing you with a free green wheelie bin or box, if you don’t already have a recycling container or would like to change the type visit the Recycling Wheelie Bins page.

Just fill your recycling container with all your paper, card, cans and plastic bottles. Look on the Pompey Recycling Scheme webpage for more information on what you can and can't recycle from home.

Please remember: don't put black sacks or plastic bags in your recycling container. These have to be removed before waste can be sorted at the Materials Recovery Facility, can cause problems and incur extra costs.

Recycling from a house

Recycling collections take place every fortnight on the same day as your normal rubbish collection. You should receive a recycling calendar showing the dates of your collection every May. If you don't have a calendar contact us and we will send you one.  Or check out the recycling calenders

On collection day, please leave your recycling container at the front of your property where the boundary (see the diagram at the bottom of this page) meets the pavement by 7am. If you're not an early riser you can put it out after 8pm the night before. Please leave your wheelie bin with the handles facing the road and leave your lid on your green box to prevent wind-blown litter.

Recycle From Your Flat

If you live in a flat, you can take part in the Pompey Recycling Scheme. Almost every block of flats in Portsmouth has been provided with big, green, communal recycling bins, which you'll find in your bin shed alongside the ordinary rubbish bins, or in a separate area nearby.  Most recycling bins are emptied at least once a week.

In the past these have often been neglected, filled up with the wrong things and used only by a minority of residents. Our Recycling Team has visited many of these blocks, on a mission to raise awareness of the facilities available and help residents make the most of them.  They have spoken to as many residents as possible and given out new “flats recycling packs” to make it easier for them to store and dispose of their recycling.

If you're not sure whether your flat has recycling facilities, please contact us to find out.  If you haven’t got recycling bins at your flat yet, don’t worry, we are putting in new flats recycling facilities around the city right now and intend to have them at every block by 2010.