How to use communal recycling bins

What you can put in communal or shared recycling bins. These are the large recycling bins on streets or shared bins for blocks of flats.

What you can put in communal recycling bins

What you can recycle in your kerbside or local communal mixed recycling bin

tins and cans - empty and rinsed

aerosols - all kinds, empty

cardboard - clean and flattened or torn in pieces to fit in your bin

paper - including magazines and envelopes with windows. Do not include shredded paper

plastic bottles - all kinds, rinsed and squashed with lids, pumps and triggers on

plastic pots, tubs and trays - rinsed and squashed

Non-black plastic plant pots – clean and separated (not stacked inside each other)

What you can recycle in your kerbside glass box or local communal glass recycling bin

Glass bottles and jars – all kinds, rinsed, with any metal lids on - go in your black glass recycling box or a local communal glass bin (plastic lids go in your general waste bin) 

If you have electrical items, clothes and other non-household or garden waste, these can't go in the communal bins. You’ll need to:

Batteries can be recycled at battery recycling points listed on Recycle Now's website.

Shared recycling for blocks of flats

If you live in a block of flats, you'll likely have large shared bins in the bin store for household recycling.

The recycling bins might be small green wheelie bins or large black bins. They'll be clearly labelled with recycling stickers..

At least one bin will be for glass and the other bins will be for recycling materials.

Help with moving rubbish

If you are elderly, disabled or for any other reason can’t take your rubbish and recycling to a communal bin on the street, you could get an assisted collection.

More information

Find out how to recycle other household items in our A to Z guide to recycling.