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Recycling
Find out what items you can recycle at home
- Recycling is collected every 2 weeks. Find out your next recycling collection day.
- On collection day, your recycling should be out before 7am. It will be collected before 4pm. Your recycling container should be put at the edge of your property, where it meets the pavement.
- Put recyclables clean, dry and loose in your bin. Don’t bag them.
- If you live in a block of flats, you can put your recyclables in your communal recycling bin.
- If you need a new or extra recycling bin, you can request one online
- Sometimes, the collection crew do miss bins by accident. If this happens please call 023 9284 1105 or report a missed collection online.
What can I put in my recycling bin?
- Paper
- Cardboard
- Plastic bottles (please rinse and put the lids back on)
- Food and drink cans/tins (please rinse)
- Aerosol cans
Small electrical items (such as hairdryers, toasters etc.) can also be put out alongside your normal recycling collection.
- Remove any glass, such as lightbulbs
- Put items in a normal sized carrier bag
- Place on top of the lid of your recycling bin or box on collection day.
What can’t I put in my recycling bin?
- Plastic packaging such as food trays, yoghurt pots or margarine tubs
- Cartons such as juice or soya milk cartons
- Glass – find your nearest glass recycling bank here. See below about disposing of lightbulbs.
- Carrier bags
- Aluminium foil
- Polystyrene
- Clothes – you can take these to your local textile recycling bank.
- Lightbulbs. Energy efficient light bulbs and fluorescent tubes can be recycled at the Household Waste and Recycling Centre. Halogen lightbulbs should be disposed of in the black bin/bags – please ensure these are placed safely in a plastic container or wrapped up in newspaper. Please do not place lightbulbs in the glass banks.
- Batteries – these can be recycled at local shops and supermarkets, or at the Household Waste and Recycling Centre. For electrical equipment such as laptops and phones, leave the batteries in the equipment and recycle through the small electrical items collection.
What does the red hanger on my bin mean?
The recycling collection crew will check the top layer of your recycling bin before emptying the bin. This is to stop too many items which can’t be recycled in Portsmouth entering the recycling stream. It’s expensive to remove these items at the sorting facility.
If the crew see too many non-recyclable items in the bin or one large non-recyclable item, they won’t empty it. They will leave a red hanger on the handle of the bin. This will also be recorded on the vehicle’s on-board computer system.
If your recycling has been left, check the contents of the bin. The hanger on the recycling bin will show you which items can’t be taken. The most common type of non-recyclable items found in recycling bins are plastic pots, tubs, trays and carrier bags. A large non-recyclable item would be a glass bottle or black bag, for example.
Remove any non-recyclable items from the recycling bin before your next collection. You can place extra recycling in a cardboard box alongside your bin on your next collection.
For answers to frequently asked questions about recycling in Portsmouth, check out our mythbuster page.
What if I can't put my recycling out?
If you have a medical condition that prevents you from putting your recycling out please contact us to request an assisted collection.
- Complete the online form to request an assisted collection
- Email recyclingandrubbish@portsmouthcc.gov.uk
- Telephone 023 9284 1105
Where it goes and what happens to it
The recycling lorry takes the waste to the Materials Recycling Facility (MRF). Inside the MRF, the waste is emptied and sorted into the different types of material. These sorted materials are then sent to factories to turn the old waste into new items:
- Drink cans – more drink cans, foil, window frames
- Plastic bottles – fleece jumpers, garden furniture, sleeping bag filling
- Paper – new paper, newspapers
- Steel – paper clips, washing machines, cutlery
- Cardboard – toilet rolls, egg boxes
How to put your bin out
For details on how to put your recycling bin out for collection please read the guidelines.
