Norfolk County Council Recycling Centres
Norfolk County Council provides 20 Recycling Centres across the county for the reuse, recycling and disposal of household waste that is not suitable for normal waste bins. Click here to use our interactive map and find your closest centre.
Do you know what you can and can’t take to one of Norfolk County Council’s Recycling Centres? For a detailed list, please click here .
+ Bin Genie - Local Reuse and Recycling locator tool
In addition to your regular household recycling collection services, Norfolk has a large net
work of other recycling, reuse and repair facilities. Charity shops and recycling banks are widely available across Norfolk and some charities will collect from your doorstep.
To find your most convenient and environmentally friendly option use our recycling locator Bin Genie.
+ Electrical Items
So, you’ve bought a new washing machine, television, microwave or hairdryer, but what should you do with your old one?
If you are buying new electrical equipment, the supplier should offer collection for your item, ensuring it is either reused or recycled correctly.
Electrical items shouldn’t be put into your rubbish bin and definitely not into your recycling bin.
Remember, it is your responsibility to remove all personal data from your electronic items prior to recycling them. More information on deleting your data can be found here.
See below for what to do if you no longer want or need your old electrical or electronic items:
Kerbside Small Electrical and Battery Collections
Many local councils offer a kerbside collection for small electricals and batteries you can find out more about these here.
Gift It, Donate It or Sell It
Some charity organisations will accept electrical items. There are lots of online forums and reuse sites for someone to buy it or give it away free. Some older items may have a higher value than you might expect due the resurgence in vintage items!
Norfolk Recycling Centres which have a Reuse Shop, sell PAT tested electrical items. Find your nearest Reuse Shop here.
Fix It
There are still people out there who can mend items! Try to find your local ‘fix it’ person. Look out for repair cafés in your area.
To find out where you can repair, reuse or recycle your old electrical items visit our Bin Genie.
If it is Broken, Recycle it
Household electrical items (including lightbulbs and batteries) can be recycled at Norfolk’s Recycling Centres.
Some small items such as mobile phones can be recycled online by sending them off in the post. You may get a small payment even for an older phone.
+ Bulky Waste Collections
All councils in Norfolk offer a paid for collection service for large items.
For more information; including charges and what items they can and cannot collect please select your local council below.
Borough Council of King’s Lynn and West Norfolk
Broadland and South Norfolk District Councils
Great Yarmouth Borough Council
North Norfolk District Council
Alternative Options:
There are lots of other ways you can dispose of your large household items:
- Take your household items to any of Norfolk’s Recycling Centres
- Local internet selling sites or social media groups
- Freegle
- Local Charity shops
You can find your closest option with our Bin Genie
+ Clothes and Textiles
In Norfolk approximately 8,500 tonnes of textiles that could be reused or recycled are thrown away every year. Nationally this adds up to £140 million worth of used clothing going to landfill. Extending the average life of clothes by just three months of active use would lead to a 5-10% reduction in each of the carbon, water and waste footprints. It would also mean we get much more value out of our clothes and save money.
Try selling, swapping, donating to charity or recycling. You’ll be helping the environment and could even make some money too!
Charity shops, textile banks and bagged collections will take good quality clothing, shoes and often other household textile items for reuse. Some may also accept worn out or damaged items.
Norfolk County Council’s recycling centres accept a wide variety of clothes, shoes and other textiles.
Some local councils collect textiles, clothing and shoes alongside your rubbish and recycling. Place any clean, dry textiles in a standard-sized carrier bag (no black bin liners) then place it next to your recycling or black waste bin by 7am on your collection day.
+ CLINICAL WASTE AND SHARPS COLLECTIONS
If you inject yourself with medication, you should now take your sharps waste to a participating pharmacy in your area for safe disposal. This free service is available to all residents who need it.
Click here to search for your nearest participating pharmacy or call 0344 800 8020
GP surgeries are no longer accepting sharps waste.
If you are unable to take your used medical sharps to one of the pharmacies on the list, please contact your district council to arrange a home collection.
Only dispose of used sharps in specialist sharps bins.
A sharps bin is a specially designed rigid box with a secure lid, which is available on prescription (FP10 prescription form) that can be dispensed, along with medication.
Used sharps must not be placed in general household waste or recycling bins.
INFORMATION FOR HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS AND CARE/NURSING HOMES
Healthcare providers who treat patients in their own home and produce clinical waste as a result of treating patients are under a duty of care to manage the waste they produce. The healthcare provider must make their own arrangements for such waste.
Care Homes/Nursing Homes should make their own contractual arrangements for the disposal of clinical waste; if it is as a result of community pharmacies providing an additional/enhanced service to the care home then the pharmacy should be making separate arrangements for the disposal.
+ DIY CONSTRUCTION AND DEMOLITION WASTE RECYCLING AND DISPOSAL
For up-to-date information on the recent government announcement surrounding charges for DIY waste please visit Norfolk County Council
DIY type waste can be reused, recycled or disposed of at all main recycling centres operated by Norfolk County Council for a small charge using the
‘Pay as you throw’ service
Further details can be found here.
ALTERNATIVE WAYS TO RECYCLE AND DISPOSE OF DIY TYPE WASTE
Should you wish to use a different service, the list below may help you.
(List created on 22/03/2018 using internet search. Norfolk Councils do not endorse any of these options over other skip and waste services which may be available. The list is not exclusive).
Everyone (including householders) has a duty of care to ensure their rubbish is disposed of in the correct and legal manner. Householders are advised to check an individual’s or company’s Waste Carrier’s Licence before allowing them to remove waste from their property. Licence checks can be made with the Environment Agency here. Householders should ask for a Waste Transfer Note which states the name and address of the point of disposal and keep it in a safe place. Householders are responsible if their waste is fly tipped and could face a fine of up to £5,000 if found guilty of breaching The Waste (Household Waste Duty of Care) (England and Wales) Regulations 2005
North
G Haller Skip Hire Rosh Pinna, Fakenham Rd, Sculthorpe, Fakenham, NR21 9NE 01328 855802
Fakenham Skips www.fakenhamskips.co.uk 01328 862 659
Drury’s www.drurysenvironmental.co.uk 01692 405820
South
Baldwin www.baldwinskip.co.uk 01953 453 625
Pips Skips www.pipsskips.co.uk 01603 882100
Freedom Skips www.freedomrecycling.co.uk 01842 828888
East
Daves Skips www.davesskips.co.uk 01692 406627
Carl Bird www.carlbirdltd.co.uk 01692 404603
Clems www.clems-skip-hire.co.uk 01493 653600
West
Skippy Skip Hire, www.skippy-skiphire.co.uk 01553 811 866
Baco-Compak (Norfolk ) Ltd www.bacocompakltd.co.uk 01553 630247
Glazewing www.glazewing.co.uk 01366 500 162
Central
Norman Wenn www.normanwenn-skiphire.co.uk 01603 881292
Pips Skips www.pipsskips.co.uk 01603 882100
AKS www.aksskiphire.co.uk 01603 789 555
Jays www.jaystotalwaste.co.uk 01603 744419
MPH www.mphgroup.co 01603 882220
PSH Environmental https://parkersskips.com/ 01603 721533
+ Nappies
DISPOSABLE NAPPIES ARE RUBBISH
Having a baby is one of the most hectic times of life for any parent or carer and a child can get through around 2,000 nappies in its first year. Many of those nappies are thrown away in the wrong bin because people are in a hurry and have their hands full with their new arrival.
But every year, around 400,000 used nappies are put in recycling bins and end up at Norfolk’s recycling facility in Costessey, causing a big problem. This is where your recycling is hand sorted by our workers, who have to remove all those dirty nappies, which is extremely unpleasant and unhygienic.
Successful recycling relies on people making sure their recycling is ‘clean, dry and loose’ and nappies are certainly not clean or dry! Nappies in the wrong bin also costs money and time to deal with; which ends up costing council taxpayers more.
People don’t realise the problems nappies cause. Many people mistakenly think nappies, used or unused, can be recycled because they are made from paper pulp, but they can’t. The cardboard box disposable nappies are packaged in is recyclable, but the nappies themselves, in Norfolk, are not.
That’s why we want to remind people why it is so important to stop and think about whether they are putting the right things in the right bin. All of our councils and collection crews work hard to empty our bins and when they find a recycling bin contaminated with used nappies it can be soul-destroying.
So when you have finished with a nappy, please put it in your rubbish bin where it belongs.
REAL NAPPIES – THERE IS A CHOICE
For parents who wish to try alternatives, why not try washable, fabric nappies which are a modern version of the old terry towels. They are fun and funky and a great way to save money as well as reducing your family’s rubbish in the bin. To give them a try, there are several local outlets, all accessible through the links to the left.
For more information, please click here.
DID YOU KNOW?
The History of Disposable Nappies
Whatever you think about disposable nappies, they are here to stay. They were invented by a mum in Scotland to help her cope with bringing up small children. Advertised as “A really attractive garment, skilfully designed by a mother, to make the whole-time use of disposable nappies a practical possibility”. They offered an easier way to keep your baby clean and comfortable. Valerie Hunter created the first “Paddi” after having her third child, Nigel, in 1947 and becoming fed-up with washing traditional nappies. The two-part garments were initially made out of old nylon parachutes, tissue wadding and cotton wool.
So the advent of disposable nappies created an easier way to keep your baby clean. However, a used disposable nappy is only good for one thing – your rubbish bin!
+ Paint
Paint is a common item people want to get rid of. Although liquid paint is no longer routinely accepted at our Recycling Centres, there are ways you can dispose of paint.
If you have some unused paint you could:
- ‘use it up’ by offering to friends, family or online eg Freegle or Freecycle
- ‘dry it out’ by leaving the lid off. Or speed up the process by adding something absorbent like cat litter, soil or saw dust. Once the paint is dried, you can put the paint can in your general waste bin at home
- wait for the household hazardous waste days usually held annually at Norfolk’s recycling centres – sign up for our newsletter to hear when the next days will be held and where
- contact a specialist hazardous waste contractor; these can be found in the phone book or online
In April 2014, we stopped routinely accepting paint for disposal at Recycling Centres because of the considerable cost associated with its disposal. By only taking paint at our Recycling Centres on our annual household hazardous waste days, it enables the County Council to make significant savings.
+ Walking Aids and Frames
We are working with our recycling centre operations contractor, NEWS, the Prison Service and the NHS to reuse walking aids rather than just recycle them. If you have a walking aid that is no longer needed, and you want to dispose of it, you can take it to your local recycling centre and donate it for refurbishing. The walking aids are collected for refurbishing, which is carried out by inmates at Norwich prison, and once refurbished they are taken for reuse by the NHS. This saves the NHS money on buying lots of new walking aids.
What’s more, you don’t need to book if you are only bringing a walking aid to donate. (if you are taking other items to dispose of you still need to book)
Click on the here to find your local recycling centre and check the opening times.
