FAQs for refuse and recycling
1. Why was the purple sack service introduced?
The purple sack service was introduced to encourage residents to
reduce their domestic waste and recycle more by using the recycling
facilities available.
There are increasing pressures on the local community to recycle
more and reduce the amount of waste put out for collection. If
households Borough-wide recycle as much as they can and reduce the
amount of rubbish thrown away, costs to the local tax
payer are reduced. This will also improve the community's
recycling performance compared with other parts of the country,
protect our environment, cut the consumption of raw materials and
make more sustainable use of the world's natural resources.
2. How many purple sacks will I
receive?
Each household receives a free
allocation of 52 purple sacks per annum in February/March.
Households are allocated one sack per week in order to encourage
residents to recycle more.
However, the Council is aware that
it may be difficult for some households to reduce their waste and
as such, applications for additional purple sacks will be
considered from households with;
- large households of six or more
full time permanent residents
- residents that have problems with
mobility, who find it difficult to recycle sufficient material to
reduce their refuse to one or less sacks per week
- households that produce
significant non-clinical waste as a result of medical conditions or
other similar circumstances
If you fulfil one of the above requirements,
please contact the Helpline on 01992 785520 or e-mail recycling@broxbourne.gov.uk for
further information.
3. How much of my rubbish can be recycled?
Over half of your rubbish can be recycled.
Your waste paper, cans, glass and plastic bottles can be recycled
at the kerbside. Your waste cardboard can be put in your green
wheeled bin or taken to your nearest Neighbourhood Recycling Centre (NRC).
Additionally, some NRC sites provide textile, book and shoe banks.
Kitchen and garden waste can be composted leaving you with free,
high quality compost for your garden. Please click on the following
link to find out more about the discounted home composters available.
Residents can also put cooked and uncooked food waste and green
waste in their green wheeled bin via the Green Waste Plus Scheme.
4. What will happen to my rubbish if it is placed inside a
black sack?
Only refuse placed in Council branded purple
sacks will be collected and any refuse placed in
black sacks or other containers will not be collected. In
certain cases refuse in black sacks in communal bins used by
flatted properties will be collected.
5. I am moving property, should I take my purple sacks with
me?
If you are moving to another property within the Borough, please
remember to take your purple sacks with you when you move. However,
please leave your kerbside boxes and green wheeled bin at your
original property as it is not necessary to take these items with
you.
6. I cannot fit all my recycling in my kerbside boxes.
Additional green or
black kerbside boxes can be purchased from any of the Council's one stop shops at a cost of £4.70 per
box. Other recyclables, such as cardboard and textiles, can be
taken to your nearest Neighbourhood
Recycling Centre.
7. I recycle all that I can and I still put out more than one
sack of non-recyclable waste per week.
Here is a list of handy tips that may help
reduce the amount of non-recyclable waste you put out for
collection:
- Avoid purchasing products with too much
packaging or leave any unnecessary packaging at the shop
- Buy refillable items instead of disposable
ones
- Buy products made from recyclable
materials
- Unwanted clothes can be passed to friends,
donated to charity shops or recycled at a Neighbourhood Recycling Centre
- Use your local Neighbourhood Recycling Centre for recyclables
such as cardboard and textiles
- Reduce the amount of food waste that is put
out for collection. Please see the Love Food Hate Waste
Campaign for helpful hints and tips to help minimise the amount
of food waste produced by your household
- A range of discounted home composters are
available as an environmentally friendly way to compost both
your kitchen and garden waste, rather than placing your kitchen
waste in your purple sack
- Squash bulky items that you place in your
purple sack (where appropriate)
8. When is my recycling collection day?
Kerbside recycling collections are fortnightly
on the same day as your refuse collection. Please check your
recycling calendar for your specific dates, or go to
the collection
day finder.
9. Where is my nearest Neighbourhood Recycling Centre
(NRC)?
Please click on this link to find your
nearest NRC.
10. Where should I put my refuse and recycling for
collection?
Please put your refuse and recycling on the
boundary of your property no later than 7am on the day of
collection and no earlier than 7.30pm the evening before. Please
avoid stockpiling your refuse with that of other households.
11. Can I place my recycling in carrier
bags?
No. Kerbside boxes are provided for the collection of your
recycling and therefore you should not need to use carrier bags or
any other kind of bags. The use of carrier bags contributes to the
amount of plastic waste generated. Furthermore, when recycling is
contained in bags it is difficult for the crew to know what is in
it. This can result in contamination and has also resulted in
injury as they have been unaware of broken glass or sharp can edges
within the bags.
12. Why can't we recycle all plastics at
the kerbside?
Plastic bottles can be recycled at the
kerbside in the black kerbside box.
Of all the materials recycled nationally,
plastic is the most difficult due to its high volume and light
weight. This makes it very expensive to collect and transport. In
addition, the market for plastic reprocessing is limited to a few
specific types of plastic bottle, and this is why other types
of plastic are not recycled at the kerbside.
13. Why can't cardboard be put out with newspapers - where
should it go?
Paper, such as newspapers, magazines and white
'office' type paper is made up of white fibres and is used for
making newsprint. This type of white paper can be recycled in the
paper banks or in the kerbside recycling
boxes. If cardboard is mixed with the white paper, it
contaminates the mix resulting in a weaker strength of paper
meaning paper mills reject loads of 'contaminated'
paper.
Cardboard can be recycled in the cardboard banks at the NRCs located throughout the Borough. This
can then be made into new cardboard and paper bags.
If you have a large item delivered to you
in a cardboard box, the manufacturer should be able to take it away
for recycling.
14. Can broken bottles and jars be put in the kerbside
box?
There is no reason why a broken glass bottle
or jar cannot be recycled - bottles get smashed when dropped into
the public glass banks. However, for safety reasons please
do not put broken glass bottles and jars into the kerbside box as this will be left on the edge of
your property for collection, and may be a risk to pedestrians and
the collection crew. Please wrap the broken glass in paper and
place in your refuse bin or put the glass only into a recycling bank yourself.
15. Do I need to wash out my bottles before putting them out
for recycling?
Please rinse your glass bottles and food cans
before they are recycled and by doing so it will avoid nuisance
from smells during storage. It is not necessary to remove the
labels from glass bottles, but please remove corks and lids.
16. Can Pyrex, green house glass, drinks glasses and light
bulbs be recycled?
Pyrex, green house glass, drinks glasses and
light bulbs cannot be recycled. They are made from glass with a
different melting point and chemical composition and therefore
contaminate the glass containers. If included, they produce weak
points in the new glass containers produced, which would make them
unsafe to use. See the following link for further details of
what can and cannot be put into your green
kerbside box.
17. Can jars as well as bottles be recycled?
All glass jars can be recycled with bottles in
your green kerbside box or at an
NRC. Pyrex, ceramics, greenhouse glass,
drinks glasses, light bulbs and spectacles cannot be collected.
18. Can I recycle shredded paper?
Shredded paper can now be recycled at the
kerbside. If you are on the Green Waste
Plus Scheme, please place your shredded paper in the green
wheeled bin. Shredded paper can also be put it in your
compost
bin or deposited in the paper bank at the NRC.
19. What happens to materials collected for recycling?
All material collected for recycling is
transported to a site to be processed and made into a new product.
For instance:
- Papers and magazines are taken in bulk to a
paper mill, where they are made into fresh newsprint
- Glass in the bottle banks is transported in
bulk to Harlow Glass Factory where it is made into new bottles and
jars to store specific products
- Cans and tins are taken to a scrap metal
merchant who separates the aluminium cans from the steel using a
magnet. The separated cans are then crushed and baled and sent to
steel and aluminium reprocessors to be made into new metal
products
- Green waste, cardboard and food waste is sent to a
facility at Ridge, Potters Bar where the material is shredded,
treated and turned into compost.
20. Why do recycling services differ between councils?
Local councils are operated under the
instruction of locally elected councillors who aim to provide
services that meet their residents' needs. Refuse and recycling
services provided by local councils are planned and implemented at
different rates and in different ways, according to spending
priorities. The distance from reprocessing facilities also has a
major effect - for instance a borough which is mainly urban and is
located near to a paper mill, can provide paper recycling at a
lower cost than a rural borough located some distance from a paper
mill, due to the high cost of collection and transportation.
If this does not answer you query,
please email your question to recycling@broxbourne.gov.uk.