Better Recycling

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)

Two of the most frequent questions we get asked are “why don’t you collect food” or “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 recycling 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) and a larger and lockable 23 litre one to store the food outdoors between your weekly collection and put on the pavement to be collected

For recycling – you will receive an additional recycling bin, so that you have a green (or green lidded) as well as a blue (or blue lidded) one. The green bin will be for paper and cardboard and the blue bin for glass, metal tins and cans, cartons and plastic bottles, tubs and trays.

The Government wants to separate fibre recyclables (e.g. paper and cardboard) from other recyclables (plastics, cans, glass etc). Not only will this ensure we collect a better quality of material, but when compared to the other legally viable collection options considered, this system is also more cost effective. As such, this is best financial outcome for Suffolk taxpayer.

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

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

The Government is requiring local councils to implement its Better 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:

• glass bottles and jars
• cartons e.g. Tetra Pak
• food waste (on a weekly basis)
• plastic film (by April 2027)

Yes. 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!

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 new research, detailed knowledge of our local areas and the experience of operating collection services for many years.

However, there will be some homes, such as terraced properties and flats, that require a slightly different approach. Suffolk Councils are currently learning from other Councils that have been through this process successfully and will be reaching and engaging with households that have genuine and legitimate challenges.

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 changes will come into effect during 2026. Suffolk Council’s will provide full details and timings for any change in due course.

Nothing. Your existing services will continue as normal until your local Council provides further details in due course.

• 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.

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 recycling bin).

The paper and cardboard (the materials from your green 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. Subject to planning permission, the AD facility will be in Suffolk.

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 is safely incinerated and used to generate electricity.

Please put items smaller than 5cm in your rubbish bin.

If you put small items such as loose bottle tops in your recycling bin they will not be recycled and could spoil the other materials.

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.

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 reduces 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 £1million 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)