FAQs

Currently, the following items are collected from Suffolk households for recycling:

• Paper and card
• Plastic bottles
• Pots, tubs and trays
• Metal food and drinks cans
• Aluminium foil
• Garden waste (subject to an additional charge)

The following items will also be collected from Suffolk households for recycling from June 2026:

• Glass bottles and jars
• Drinks cartons such as Tetra Pak
• Plastic bags, wrappings and films
• Food waste (collected separately on a weekly basis)

Two of the most frequent questions we get asked are “why don’t you collect food” and “why don’t you collect glass or cartons”? These changes will ensure all households will be able to recycle or compost more of their household waste.

The changes will also help the environment by increasing Suffolk’s recycling rate, reducing the amount of waste that goes into our rubbish bins and decreasing the carbon impacts of the Suffolk waste and recycling collection service.

This is all vital in our efforts to combat the climate emergency and promote a circular economy that ensures precious resources can be repeatedly recycled and reused. It will also help Suffolk play our part in achieving the Government’s aim to recycle or compost 65% of our waste by 2035.

Yes. For food - every home in Suffolk will receive new containers for the weekly collection of food. You will have 2 caddies: a 5 litre one for collecting food waste in your kitchen (small enough to sit on your worktop or under your sink) and a larger lockable 23 litre one to store the food outdoors between your weekly collections that you put on the pavement to be collected.

For recycling – you will receive an additional recycling bin, so that you have a green lidded one as well as a blue lidded one. 

The green lidded bin will be for paper, cardboard, shredded paper and books. 

The blue lidded bin will be for glass bottles and jars, metal tins and cans, drinks cartons, plastic bottles, tubs and trays and plastic bags, wrappings and films.

No. The new services start in June 2026. Before then, we’ll be delivering everyone’s bins and caddies to homes across Suffolk – a process that will take several months.

When your new bin and food waste caddies arrive, please store them somewhere safe but don’t use them yet. You will receive more information in May about how and when to start using them.

The Government has passed new waste and recycling legislation as part of the Environment Act (2021). This legislation requires all Council's nationwide to collect a standard number of materials for recycling and includes a requirement to collect food waste from homes on a weekly basis. Government is also asking Council's to separate fibre recyclables (e.g. paper and cardboard) from other recyclables (plastics, cans, glass etc). Not only will this new approach ensure we collect a better quality of material, but it is more cost effective, when compared to other legally compliant collection systems. As such, the new services provide the best financial outcome for the Suffolk taxpayers.

We currently collect food waste as part of your black rubbish bin collections.

The new service will provide a separate weekly food waste collection, which will mean it is sitting in your bin for half the time than it currently does.

When we deliver your food caddies, we will include a free roll of liners. Whilst you don’t have to line your indoor caddy, doing so will keep the caddy cleaner and will be easier to transfer the food waste to the larger caddy kept outside. We’ve provided you the free roll of compostable liners to get you started, and replacements can be purchased from supermarkets.

Over 50,000 tonnes of food waste is thrown into Suffolk household rubbish bins every year. This is around 1/3 of all the household rubbish we generate! You can help to tackle this huge problem by reducing your food waste. Our Food Savvy campaign is full of hints and tips to help you achieve this, and it could save you money too! You can also compost some garden and food wastes at home. To support this, the Suffolk Waste Partnership promotes a subsidised home composting scheme. You can find out more here - Composting - Suffolk Recycling

From June 2026, we will also be introducing a weekly collection of food waste. This new service aims to tackle the remaining food waste and use it to create a biomethane, which can heat Suffolk homes, as well as a bio-fertiliser, which can be spread on local farmland. It will also process those tricky items that are difficult to compost at home, such as any cooked leftover food, meat and fish bones, as well as fruit and veg peelings for those who don't compost these already. So, whether you create a lot of food waste or only a little, we encourage everyone to support this new service, reduce food waste and lower Suffolk’s Carbon emissions.

The Government is requiring local councils to implement its new waste and recycling strategy, which aims to enhance recycling rates and encourage a more consistent national approach to recycling across England. To support the Government’s strategy, as well as the materials we already collect, we’ll also start collecting the following from households directly from June 2026: 

• Glass bottles and jars
• Cartons e.g. Tetra Pak
• Plastic bags, wrappings and films
• Food waste (on a weekly basis)

Yes, from June 2026.

Suffolk residents currently recycle 70% of all household glass by taking it to their local recycling banks. By collecting it from your home, we hope to make it easier for residents to recycle even more glass! 

We’ve been collecting recycling from homes across Suffolk for almost 25 years. A lot has changed in this time! New technology means we can now recycle more than ever before.

All councils in England will collect the same materials for recycling, which will improve consistency and reduce confusion. It will also make it easier for residents to recycle more things from home.

The Government is providing some additional funding to Councils to help fund new services. In addition, the Government is making the producers of packaging financially responsible for the materials they place on shop shelves. This means that in future producers must help fund the collection services provided by your Council, rather than this being a cost to the taxpayer.

Suffolk Councils believe most households have the ability to store and put-out the additional bins safely and use the new standard services fully. This is based on research, detailed knowledge of our local areas and the experience of operating collection services for many years.

However, there will be some homes that require a slightly different approach. Suffolk Councils have learnt from other Councils that have been through this process successfully, and homes where space is limited, you may get a smaller box or sack instead.

If you live in a flat or a property that shares recycling and waste services with others, you’ll still be able to recycle the new range of materials.

Suffolk Councils already provide assisted collections to residents that need additional help. This will continue under any new service. Please contact your local Council if you need further information.

The new services will start in June 2026. Suffolk Council’s will provide full details and timings for any change before the new service starts.

Further information will be posted to homes from January 2026

Nothing. Your existing services will continue as normal until the end of May 2026. The new services will start in June 2026.

• You can take additional household waste to any of Suffolk’s 11 Recycling Centres as well as lots of other items which you can’t recycle at home. See a full list of these items and more Recycling Centre information.
• You can also arrange a bulky waste collection for large items through your local council.
• Find out how to reduce food waste.

In Suffolk, mixed recycling is collected by your local council and is taken to our Materials Recycling Facility (MRF) at Great Blakenham in Suffolk. Here the materials are sorted mechanically and by hand into separate paper, card, plastics and metals. These separated materials are then baled and sold on to companies who can recycle them. You can learn more here.

The MRF sorting process also removes any spoiled and unwanted materials (such as black sack rubbish, food and nappies) which go on to Suffolk's Energy from Waste facility. However, removing this material is expensive and the Suffolk taxpayer has to pick up the costs. The better option is always to avoid putting the wrong items in your recycling bins.

In many ways, the recycling process will remain the same. The main difference will be that the Materials Recycling Facility (MRF), which will be redesigned to separate the glass, cans, cartons and plastics (the materials that will go in the blue lidded recycling bin).

The paper and cardboard (the materials from your green lidded recycling bin) will no longer require separation at the MRF and will instead be bulked up and sent directly to a paper merchant for reprocessing.

Any food waste collected from Suffolk homes will be sent to an Anaerobic Digestion (AD) facility, where it will create a bio-fertiliser for spreading on farmland, as well as bio-methane which will be used to power vehicles, produce electricity and provide gas to homes and business. 

All rejected or spoiled recycling is sent from our Materials Recycling Facility (MRF) to Suffolk’s Energy from Waste (EfW) facility for disposal. Once there it is safely incinerated and used to generate electricity.

Items that are smaller than 5cm can't go in your blue lidded recycling bin. If you put small items such as loose bottle tops in your blue lidded recycling bin, they will not be recycled and could spoil other items. 

Please note that shredded paper (which is often smaller than 5cm) is allowed in your green-lidded recycling bin as paper and card are processed separately. 

Yes - materials for recycling should be clean, dry and loose (not in bags). A quick rinse will usually be enough to clean most packaging and to remove most bits of leftover food.

Any plastic bags, wrappings or films, should be placed into the blue lidded recycling bin loose, and not used to bag up other recyclable materials. 

There is no need to remove labels from the packaging.

Most manufacturers are trying to avoid using black plastics, but if you have them, they can go in your recycling bin.

Mixed plastics are separated using special machinery. This machinery cannot identify the colour black, so any black plastics need to be separated by hand. Please avoid buying or using black plastics if you can. 

Recycling helps the environment by reducing carbon emissions and decreases the need for new products to be made from raw materials.

It’s important to put the right items into your recycling bin. Currently, around 10,000 tonnes (about 20%) of the items we collect in Suffolk are rejected due to the wrong items being placed in the recycling bins.

Why is this a problem?

1. Quality is key - Companies that use your recyclables to make new products will not accept spoiled items.
2. It’s wasteful - Putting the wrong items into your recycling bin also means that good items will become ‘spoiled’ and won’t get recycled.
3. It’s expensive - Cleaning up spoiled items costs Suffolk’s taxpayers over £1 million a year.
4. It could be dangerous - Spoiled items are unpleasant and dangerous for staff at the Materials Recycling Facility (MRF) to remove. This often has to be done by hand.

Resources and waste strategy for England - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

The (closed) Government consultations:

Consistency in Household and Business Recycling in England - Defra - Citizen Space

Extended Producer Responsibility for Packaging - Defra - Citizen Space

Introducing a Deposit Return Scheme in England, Wales and Northern Ireland - Defra - Citizen Space

The Government consultation responses:

Consistency in household and business recycling in England - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

EPR Consultation Government response template (publishing.service.gov.uk)

Introducing a Deposit Return Scheme for drinks containers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland – government response (publishing.service.gov.uk)