We are all encouraged to reduce the amount of waste we produce. This helps us all to protect the environment, conserve resources, save energy and money, improving public health and promoting sustainable living. You’d be amazed how much you may consider to be ‘waste’ still has a value. You could:
- repair broken items (find the date of our next repair cafe)
- give items to charity (find your nearest charity shop)
- share items on local recycling apps (for example, Olio, Freecycle, or Too good to go)
- recycle waste items which can’t be repaired or donated (find local recycling points for specific items on the recyclenow website)
Recycling at home (kerbside recycling)
The council supports home recycling using coloured bins, for example:
- paper and cardboard (44L recycling box)
- glass, tins, cans and ‘rigid’ plastics with codes 1, 2 or 5 (in the blue ‘mixed recycling’ bin)
- food waste, including scraps and peelings (in the small food caddy bin)
- garden waste (subscribe to get a gardening waste bin)
- batteries (loose in small clear bags, on top of your blue mixed recycling bin)
You can also check what you can put in your bins or use the council’s waste wizard tool to tell you how to recycle different items. If you are unsure if an item can be recycled put it in your black general waste bin.
Recycling soft plastics
Soft plastics are non-rigid plastic packaging items that can be “scrunched’ up in your hand. For example:
- crisp packets
- vegetable bags
- bread bags
- carrier bags
- bubble wrap
- confectionary wrappers
- peelable fills from ready meals
These can only be recycled in special locations, for example, supermarkets. Find local recycling points for specific items on the recyclenow website.
Recycling electric cables
All cables from electric devices contain precious metals that can be recycled. Please take these to your nearest council household recycling centre:
- Amersham – London Road East, HP7 9DT
- Chesham – Latimer Road HP5 1TL
