Household rubbish
We operate an alternate week kerbside collection service.
What we collect in your kerbside recycling and garden wheelie bin
Green recycling container
Yes please:
- Any plastic bottles from the kitchen, utility or bathroom
- Drinks and food cans, biscuit tins and aerosols
No thanks:
- Yoghurt pots
- Plastic bags
- Polystyrene
- Cling film
- Food trays
- Pots
- Paint tins
- Cutlery
- Large metal items
Black recycling container
Yes please:
- All glass bottles.
- All glass jars.
No thanks:
- Window glass
- Crockery
- Ceramics
- Pyrex
- Vision ware e.g. spectacles
Blue recycling container/blue bags
Yes please:
- Newspapers
- Magazines
- Junk mail
- Catalogues
- White papers
- Telephone directories
- Cardboard boxes
- Cardboard food packaging
- Greeting cards
- Kitchen and loo roll tubes
No thanks:
- Envelopes
- Wallpaper
- Beverage cartons (tetra paks)
- Polystyrene
- Plastic bags
- Cling film
- Cardboard with food on it
Brown garden bin
Yes please:
- Provided to those properties subscribing to the garden waste subscription service
- A 240 litre brown wheelie bin is provided as standard. Smaller 140 litre bins are available on request
- Properties that are unsuitable for wheelie bins, or where residents require assistance (due to medical conditions, age etc.) will be provided with biodegradable liners for garden waste instead of a wheelie bin.
- Grass cuttings, windfalls, flowers and plants, hedge clippings, leaves and bark, weeds, turf, hay, straw, small branches and prunings. Please remove as much soil as possible from your garden waste.
No thanks:
- Anything that may be contaminated with dog or cat waste.
- Excessive soil – please remove as much as possible from your garden waste.
Black and green wheelie bins
Please put non-recyclable waste in your black or green wheelie bin. A 180 litre black wheelie bin is provided as standard (all 240 litre green wheelie bins will be replaced by 180 litre black bins). Smaller 140 litre bins are available on request.
We’ll provide 52 black liners per year to properties unsuitable for wheelie bins, or where residents require assistance (due to medical conditions, age etc). These liners can be used for household waste that can’t be recycled. Use our form to apply for assistance.
Properties using black liners may be provided with a wheelie bin for storage of the black liners containing non-recyclable waste, if you need it. A maximum of three liners per property will be taken at each collection.
Why can we not recycle some items? And why do we use recycling boxes?
The District does not have the infrastructure to recycle certain materials. For example, plastic bottles made from HDPE 2 and PET(E) 1 plastics can be recycled in Ryedale, but yoghurt pots made from PP5 plastics would need to be processed further afield. That would increase costs, as well as CO2 emissions. To save costs, we ask that you put yoghurt pots and other PP5 items in your rubbish bin. If you’d like to recycle these items you can check out the recycling locator website.
The plastic items we collect at kerbside are easily recycled and provide a high quality material. That’s why there’s a market for them in the UK and it reduces the need to export lower grade plastics.
Similarly, as there is no Material Recycling Facility (MRF) in the district, we use a box system for kerbside recycling. This kerbside system enables you to separate the different materials into the three boxes, in order to produce the highest quality materials for recycling and is one of the most efficient and effective recycling systems there is.
Why is food waste not collected separately?
Food waste is currently collected along with general rubbish in your black/green rubbish bin.
Separate food waste collections have been carefully considered, but the increased costs involved would outweigh any potential benefits. This is continually reviewed in line with the Government’s Waste and Resources Strategy which proposes mandatory separate food waste collections by 2023.
If there’s food waste in your bin, it does get taken care of as it’s separated for anaerobic digestion to produce biogas.
However, it’s always helpful if you can reduce the amount of food waste you produce. There are some great tips to reduce food waste on this website or you can recycle your food waste at home.
What happens to my household waste?
After your wheelie bin is emptied into the back of our collection vehicle, the waste is taken to the Kirby Misperton Waste Transfer Station.
It’s then bulked up and transported to the Allerton Park Waste Recovery Plant where it undergoes different processes to remove materials, such as metal and lower grade plastics. That way, we can recycle what we can from the household waste.
Food waste is separated off too and anaerobically digested to produce biogas and the remaining waste is used to generate electricity. Diverting this waste away from landfill means it can be used to generate enough energy to power the equivalent of 40,000 homes. We think that’s pretty amazing. The remaining ash is used to produce concrete aggregate for the construction industry.
Watch some videos of the plant in operation to see what happens to your waste.
Full details of our policy on rubbish and recycling are available in our household waste collection policy