My Recycling Bin

No matter where you live in Norfolk, you can put the same items in your household recycling bin.

Norfolk’s recycling service accepts a wide range of materials right from your home. Please see below for full list.

Just remember our 3 simple rules:

• Clean – give your items a quick rinse to remove most bits of leftover food/liquids. Any food or liquid could spoil other recycling, resulting in all of it not being recycled.
• Dry – wet items can also spoil other recycling, once you wash leave on the draining board to dry before placing in the bin.
• Don’t Bag It – please don’t put carrier bags or sacks inside your recycling bin. Bags will not be opened at the recycling sorting facility for safety reasons, and therefore items are not recycled. Bagged item will end up as general waste.

• Newspapers and magazines.
• White and coloured paper.
• Greetings cards (without glitter and 3D elements).
• Envelopes (including ones with windows, but not ones with bubble wrap padding).
• Junk mail (remove from any plastic packaging).
• Clean paper bags.
• Telephone directories, yellow pages, store directories and catalogues.
• Clean wrapping paper (without glitter or cellotape).
• Shredded paper (please make sure this is put in your bin loosely and not in bags).

• Cereal boxes.
• Egg boxes.
• Cardboard tubes (poster, kitchen and toilet roll tubes). NOT PRINGLE TUBES THOUGH!
• Cardboard packaging and carrier trays (like fruit and vegetable trays).
• Cardboard sleeves.
• Corrugated cardboard.
• Clean food packaging card (including with plastic windows such as pre-packed sandwiches).

• Clean food and drink cartons, including:
  • Tetra Pak cartons for milk
  • Fruit juices
  • Smoothies
  • Soups

Please make sure your cartons are empty, rinsed out and remove any lids as these are too small to be recycled.

• Clean steel and aluminium food tins and drink cans.
• Clean pet food tins.

Please make sure your tins and cans are empty, rinsed out and dry before placing in your recycling bin.

• Empty aerosol cans, including:
  • Personal hygiene and beauty product aerosols.
  • Cleaning products.
  • Domestic insecticides (such as fly-spray aerosols).

For aerosols, please remove any lids as these cannot be recycled.

• Clean aluminium foil.
• Clean foil trays (like ones used for ready meals and take away food).

Please rinse or wipe your foil trays out and dry before placing in your bin.

Please don’t put laminated aluminium foil pouches (like those used for baby food/cat and dog food) in your recycling bin as we cannot recycle them.

• Glass bottles.
• Jar-shaped glass food and drink containers.

You can leave the lids or tops on, but please make sure your bottles and jars are empty and rinsed out.

Please do not put any other types of glass (like drink glasses, Pyrex, mirror or window glass) in your recycling bin as we cannot recycle them. You will need to take these items to your local recycling centre, or if in usable condition donate to a charity or reuse shop.

• Plastic drink bottles.
• Plastic food bottles.
• Personal hygiene care/beauty products (like shampoo and shower gel).
• Household cleaning products (such as bleach and floor cleaner).
• Trigger spray and pump spray bottles (like kitchen or bathroom cleaner).
• Household cooking and food oil bottles.
• Roller-ball bottles (such as deodorant bottles).
• Empty medication/pill bottles.

You can leave the lids or tops on, but please make sure your bottles are empty and rinsed out.

• Clean food containers including yoghurt pots, margarine tubs, ice cream tubs and fruit punnets.
• Clean food trays used for fruits, vegetables, raw and cooked meat and fish.
• Clean pots including ones used for custards, creams, fresh sauces and gravies.
• Clean ready meal plastic containers (including black plastic trays).

Please ensure your plastic pots, tubs and trays are empty and rinsed out.

Plastic lids can be left on, but cellophane lids and cling film need to be removed as we cannot recycle these.