Bins and recycling - what goes where

These are usually made from steel and aluminium. Both of these metals are recyclable.

Please make sure they are empty and do not squash.

This must not be put in your household bin.

Please see Asbestos for advice on reporting and removing asbestos.

You can't add coal ash to your compost.

Bag ash up in a tied bag and put it in your household grey bin.

Ensure all ashes are extinguished and cold before disposal.

Check in your local supermarket - they often have household battery recycling containers.

Try using Reuseable batteries in appliances and items! They are kinder to the environment.

Duvets, pillows or quilts could be reused as kneeling pads for gardening, or bedding for pets.

Flat bedding such as pillow cases, sheets and duvet covers can be taken to charity shops for reuse.

Don't put fabrics in the green recycling bin, this can wrap around the machinery at our Materials Recycling Facility and cause damage.

Many of the bikes taken to our tips are repaired for reuse.

You can donate them to the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) for use at nature reserves and other projects: RSPB second-hand binocular scheme

Donate books where possible so that others can read them.

If the books are too damaged to be given away, take off any hard covers and them put in your green bin. This makes the paper pages easier to recycle.

Metal bottle tops and lids are made of steel or aluminium and can be recycled along with metal cans and aerosols.

Plastic bottle tops and lids can't currently be recycled in Kirklees. They are made from lots of different types of plastic and it is very difficult to sort them and recycle them at present.

These items are sent to our Energy from Waste facility and converted into electricity.

Reuse as insulation for green houses and plant pots.

Use it to pack items to send through the post.

Use it to wrap objects when moving or for storage.

These are usually made from steel and aluminium. Both of these metals are recyclable.

Clean out and squash first to make room for more recycling.

Flat pack cardboard boxes and save them for storage or moving home.

Give them away via reuse networks.

Tear up and use on your compost pile or wormery.

Use old carpets as under pond liners, or in the garden as a mulch mat (if it is hessian backed and made of natural fibres).

Place small sections on top of compost heaps to keep in the heat and your compost heap more productive.

Consider reusing old carpets as flooring in sheds or cupboards, or garages.

Animal shelters often use rugs for mats in kennels or bedding.

Cat litter can't be recycled or composted.

Please double bag it and place it in your grey bin.

You can take the empty CD cases to household waste recycling centres and place them in the hard plastic skip.

Real Christmas trees can be recycled in the garden waste skips at every household waste recycling centre. They are made into compost.

If you have bought a real Christmas tree from a garden centre, check if they will take it back once Christmas is over.

Use old textiles for craft projects such as rag rugs.

Gain ideas for what to do with clothes from Love Your Clothes

Consider repairing curtains where possible or turn them into something else for example cushion covers, padding for chairs, cleaning cloths!

Unwanted clothes can be taken to charity shops, given away to friends or family, sold online or at jumble and car boot sales.

Many charity shops will also take rags.

Some sites that will weigh in textiles and pay via weight.

Over 1 million tonnes of clothing and other textiles is thrown away in the UK each year. If this was compressed it would be as wide as Canary Wharf and 3 times taller.

How about starting your own textile swapping event. For inspiration take a look at Swishing

Offer your reuseable spares on Freegle for sale or swap.

Tassimo coffee company offer packaging recycling. Check their website for recycling points: The Tassimo & L'OR Recycling Programme

Always securely delete any information before getting rid of a computer.

Some shops will also take in old computers and laptops and recondition them for resale. Check with companies local to you.

Not only does used cooking oil create power, it also helps to reduce the UK's reliance on fossil fuels and is increasingly used to create vegetable oil fuel.

Oil should never be poured down a drain. 1 litre of oil can pollute up to 1 million litres of water drinking water.

These can fool you into thinking they are made of recyclable foil. Crisp packets are in fact made of a metallised plastic film.

To decide if it is real foil, you can do the scrunch test! If you scrunch the item in your hand and it springs back open, it is plastic film. If the item stays scrunched it is foil.

These are made from plastic coated paper and cannot be recycled with paper at this time.

Paper disposable coffee cups can be recycled in the Cartons bring bank at our household waste recycling centres.

You can also use a skip hire company to dispose of DIY waste.

Please bag up and place in your grey bin only. This waste cannot be composted or recycled.

When out walking your dog please remember to take 'poo bags' with you to pick up any mess, leaving the paths pleasant for other walkers. Either deposit the full bags in the dog waste bins or take them home to put in your own grey bin.

More information: Dog fouling

Tetrapak style food drink and food cartons can be recycled at all household waste recycling centres.

Cartons are recycled in Halifax.

More information: How are beverage cartons recycled?

Bag dust up in a tied bag and put it in your household grey bin.

Add crushed eggshells to your compost bin to help add calcium.

Whizz dried eggshells up in a food processor and add small amounts when needed to your wormery - this will help control the acidity levels in the bin, and the worms use it to help them digest.

Please ensure the waste engine oil is placed in a secure container.

Following refinement, it can be distilled into diesel fuel, or use as hydraulic oil.

Oil should never be poured down a drain - 1 litre of oil can pollute up to 1 million litres of water drinking water.

They go in the small electricals skip at household waste recycling centres.

You could give them away on sites like Freecycle or Freegle .

Foil cannot be recycled in your green bin. This is because it can't be recycled if it is not clean, and we are unable to check every bit of foil for contamination.

There are local initiatives which take clean foil and foil trays to raise money for charities. Please check in your local community centres, fair trade shops and community hubs.

Love Food Hate Waste has lots of great tips to reuse food.

Mix vegetable and fruit peelings in compost with items which are slow to rot such as paper clippings, egg boxes and cardboard.

Did you know that 36% of waste in the grey bin is food waste? The average family could save £700 a year, simply by throwing away less food.

A simple repair to broken but safe and useable items of furniture could extend the life of your item.

Donate unwanted furniture in good condition to charity shops.

Remember to check if upholstered furniture has its fire safety label intact when you pass on items to local charities.

They go in the small electricals skip at household waste recycling centres.

All the garden waste collected at household waste recycling centres is sent to be turned into compost.

It cannot include soil or rubble, infected plants, or invasive weeds like Japanese Knotweed.

We have over 130 bottle banks across Kirklees. Many are located at supermarkets and convenient car parks.

Empty bottles and jars are great for all sorts of reuse, from jam making, to storage for odds and ends, to candle holders or flower vases.

Do not put in your green bin - glass causes cuts and injuries to staff, and damages machinery.

Window panes must be taken to your local household waste recycling centre. Unfortunately the glass used in them is not recyclable as it is made from toughened glass which has a different chemical composition to standard glass.

Although Pyrex is made of glass, it can't be recycled because it's been chemically treated to withstand high temperatures, which changes the composition of the glass.

Some optician companies collect unwanted reading glasses for charitable donations to other countries.

Try your local charity shops - some will also take all types of unwanted glasses.

The decorations and foil lettering on cards cannot be recycled. Separate the paper backs from your glittery cards and recycle this bit only.

How about re-using non-recyclable decorated cards by turning them into gift tags or new cards: What to do with greetings cards

There are hard plastic skips at Meltham and Weaving lane Household waste recycling centres.

Hard plastic items include things like old washing up bowls, broken buckets, plastic toys and old kitchen drainers.

These items are recycled and turned into biofuels.

Return NHS hearing aids to your local surgery or hospital department.

Take NHS hearing aids to Specsaver shops.

You can recycle your empty inhalers at many pharmacies in Kirklees.

Find the nearest collection point: Complete the Cycle

Why not get crafty? You can turn keys into new items such as jewelry, lampshades, Christmas tree ornaments and magnets. Keys also make nice wind chimes.

Unwanted metal keys can be placed in the mixed metal container at the household waste recycling centres.

There are many different types of lightbulb including incandescent, compact florescent, fluorescent, Halogen, LED - take all your lightbulbs to the household waste recycling centre and we'll sort them.

In the UK we dispose of roughly 80 million fluorescent tubes each year which equates to 4 tonnes of mercury.

Fibre glass and rock wool insulation are irritants. If you are removing them, make sure you have a face mask to keep the fibres from being breathed in.

Please bag it before taking to a household waste recycling centre.

Take any unused medication back to your nearest pharmacy for safe disposal.

Charity shops and some furniture reuse shops accept donations.

To dispose at the household waste recycling centre, please place in the scrap metal skips provided. Check on the type of metal with staff.

Consider reusable cloth nappies.

Babies use over 4000 nappies before they're potty-trained, and an average of 5000 nappies in total. This adds up to a whopping 400,000 tonnes of waste every year, or 2-3% of all household waste! That's 3 billion nappies per year just in England and Wales.

7 million trees are cut down each year to make disposable nappies.

Consider cutting them into smaller pieces to use as cloths.

Break up natural corks into small bits - you can whizz them up in a food processor - to place them in your home composting pile. Only use a small amount at a time.

Use ground up cork or slices of cork as a mulch for plants.

Put corks at the top of garden canes for safety.

Corks are great for art and craft projects liking making pin boards, turning them into cork stamps or making snakes, boats, necklaces and loads more.

Leftover paint can be used for loads of craft ideas or simply to brighten up items in your home or garden.

Consider offering unwanted paint to local groups who could use them for art or mural projects.

Empty or partly full paint cans can be taken to any household waste recycling centre. Check with site staff on the best skip to place them in.

Use scrap paper for shopping lists, to do lists, reminders and all sorts of other useful paper-based projects. Magazines are also great for craft and collage projects.

Consider passing magazines you have read on to friends.

All paper pamphlets and flyers can be placed in your green bin. So can the Yellow Pages and other directories, although put the plastic wrapper they came in into the grey bin.

Tear out the plastic window from envelopes before putting them in your green bin. Reuse padded envelopes.

Each tonne of recycled paper can save approximately: 17 trees, 1438 litres of oil, 4000 kilowatts of energy, and 26,497 litres of water.

70% less energy is needed to recycle paper as opposed to making it from raw materials.

Many charity shops have special collection containers for old mobile phones. You can also donate landlines.

These are collected to then be separated into their different components and recycled.

Older photographs contain chemicals such as acetic acid and gelatin, which remain in the paper and cause problems in trying to reuse.

Old photographs placed in your grey bin are sent to our Energy from Waste facility and converted into electricity.

You must book online before you can dispose of your plaster and plasterboard waste at a household waste recycling centre.

Disposal is still free, but must be booked in advance.

Conditions and the form are on the Household waste recycling centres page.

Use plastic bags as liners for your household bins - or knit with old plastic bags and create something funky!

It's so important to recycle them - they are made from non-renewable oil and take hundreds of years to break down and never fully decompose. Tiny plastic particles are now being found in water supplies and soil samples. More information: Plastic Pollution Coalition

You could take the 4Rs Pledge (Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) and opt for jute or canvas bags instead. More information: Plastic Pollution Coalition

When you can't reuse a carrier bag any longer, place it in the recycling container in your local supermarket. Please don't put them in your green recycling bin. They can' be recycled through our recycling facility and often contain items such as food that contaminates other recycling items.

Remember to include plastic bottles from all rooms of the house including shampoo and shower gel from the bathroom, bleach bottles and washing up liquid bottles from the kitchen.

Clean out bottles before recycling them.

Netted produce bags that resemble fabric fishing nets, and are made from nylon and other fabric-like synthetics, are not recyclable. They can get tangled in the sorting equipment at recycling facilities.

Plastic netting placed in your grey bin is sent to our Energy from Waste facility and converted into electricity.

There are also some schemes run by garden centres that will recycle plant pots.

These items can go into the hard plastic skips at Meltham and Weaving Lane household waste recycling centres. They are sent for plastic reprocessing.

Consider keeping plastic tubs with lids to use for storage, and reuse other packing where possible.

At present only plastic bottles can be recycled in your green bin. Please place all other types of plastic packaging in your grey bin.

These items are sent to our Energy from Waste facility and converted into electricity.

This is sent to our Energy from Waste facility and converted into electricity.

Polystyrene is sent to our Energy from Waste facility and converted into electricity.

Many charities, including Kirkwood Hospice, accept used postage stamps to raise money.

Many ink cartridges can be refilled at high street print and copier shops. This is usually cheaper than buying new cartridges.

Some charity shops and printer shops will also take in used, small inkjet cartridges for recycling.

Printer cartridges put in your grey bin are sent to our Energy from Waste facility and converted into electricity.

Some charity and reuse networks will accept metal items.

To dispose at the household waste recycling centre, please place in the scrap metal skips provided.

Sometimes a simple resole at a nearby cobblers and shoe repair shop can keep you wearing your beloved shoes!

Only donate boots and shoes or take them to recycling sites if they are in good condition.

Shredded paper (not glossy magazines) can be placed in wormery or in a compost bin in moderation.

If you have regular and large amounts of shredded paper, you could consider contacting a paper shredding service.

Use as storage containers for all sorts of household and garden items, from storing knitting and sewing materials, to bird seed, to odds and ends for DIY such as nails and tape.

Metal tins go into the metal skips at household waste recycling centres.

Plastic tins go into the hard plastics skips at household waste recycling centres.

These are sent to our Energy from Waste facility and converted into electricity.

These are sent to our Energy from Waste facility and converted into electricity.

Toys and games that are in good condition should be donated, so they can be Reused. Charities, learning centres and community groups are frequently seeking such items.

Collectors often want toys and games that are in good condition.

Due to the variety of different plastics that can be in a plastic toy, they cannot be put in the green bin.

Plastic toys placed in your grey bin or taken to a household waste recycling centre are sent to our Energy from Waste facility and converted into electricity.

You can also use a skip hire company to dispose of unwanted turf.

Tyres from businesses need to contact a garage to dispose of them.

If you recycle it at a household waste recycling centre, remove the fabric from the metal and recycle in the textiles and metal skips.

Very few charities will accept video tapes nowadays (unless of children's shows), but sites like Freecycle may find interested parties. Unfortunately, videotapes cannot be recycled, so will have to go in the grey bin otherwise.

Do not put in the green bin - the tape wraps around machinery and can cause problem.

Use for craft and household projects, lining drawers, or as an alternative to wrapping paper.

Recycling For Good Causes will accept watches via the post, regardless of condition, to raise money for organisations like the Brownies.

You can check with the manufacturer if electrical goods can be repaired.

There's lots of repair advice at espares and ifixit

Electrical goods must be in good working order and be able to pass an electrical safety check when you pass them onto local charities.

You can donate unwanted wool to charity shops, retirement homes and play groups).

Some textile banks will accept wool.

Most gift wrap isn't recyclable because it is decorated with glitter or shiny film.

Wrapping paper placed in your grey bin is sent to our Energy from Waste facility and converted into electricity.

If gift wrap is 100% paper it can be recycled in your green bin: Green bins