From Monday 30th June 2025, items such as yoghurt pots, fruit punnets and ice cream tubs will be added to the kerbside collections instead of being thrown in the general waste bin.
The new plastic items can be collected alongside plastic bottles, tins, cans, aersol cans (empty), paper and cardboard, Brighton & Hove City Council said.
Other items which will still contaminate the city’s on street recycling are;
- Soft plastic
- Black plastic
- Tetra Pak / Carton e.g. juice or soup cartons
- Foil
- Any glass other than bottles
- Ceramic dishes
- Any other bric-a-brac or domestic waste
Deputy leader Tim Rowkins, member for Net Zero and Environmental Services, said: “We are finalising plans to accept food and drink cartons and aluminium foil soon, but for now please don’t put them in with your recycling as they could contaminate the load,”.
It’s important with all recycling to remove any plastic film first and recycle at your local supermarket – and as with all recycling, keep items clean, dry and loose. Give food containers a rinse and shake dry before putting them in your recycling bin.
If contamination is too high, it will cause the load to go to the general waste instead, so if you are unsure if an item can go into the on-street collection, head to B&H Council website for their full A-Z list.
Take a look inside the sorting facility in Hollingdean, to get a glimpse of how they process up to 15 tons of mixed recycling per hour.
Even though the added items in our recycling comes as good news, it’s important to remember that recycling should be a last resort and we, as consumers, should be looking to reduce, reuse and repurpose as much as possible. Plastics in particular are a very low-quality product which means they are often ‘downcycled’ into poorer quality item which will likely be either a single use plastic item or still rely heavily on virgin materials.
Try a reusable bottle or coffee cup, buy loose fruit & veg out of plastic and store leftovers in a Tupperware instead of wrapping in clingfilm.
