How to recycle different types of plastic in Devon
Household Waste Recycling Centres
You can take most types of plastic to HWRC’s. This includes:
- Bulky Rigid Plastics; water butts, bins, buckets, clean plant pots etc. Find an up to date list here as it can change.
- Clean Mixed Plastics; yogurt pots, food trays, drinks bottles.
- Drinks cartons and tetrapaks if your district doesn’t collect them kerbside.
Find out more about what plastics you can recycle in Devon here.
Household Waste Collection
- Bottles; all districts collect plastic bottles, from both the kitchen and bathroom and covering everything from bleach to shampoo. Simply wash, squash, recycle. You can also leave the tops on!
- Most districts collect food packaging, such as yogurt pots, meat and vegetable trays, margarine and ice cream tubs. Find out what yours collects here. Small amounts of food residue stuck to boxes is acceptable, but please rinse where possible.
- Clingfilm and stretchy packaging i.e carrier bags and bread bags; bread and cereal bags are great to use as liners in the compost bin! Some districts such as Exeter and Mid Devon accept stretchy packaging in their waste collections. If not, these need to be disposed of in your general waste bin.
Terracycle
Terracycle have collection points across Devon which collect those hard to recycle items and donate the revenue made from material reuse to designated charities. The most common in Devon is Ellies Fund. They accept things not commonly recycled in most household collections such as; crisp packets, contact lense packaging, oral hygeine care product packaging, cat food pouches, bread bags, water filters etc. Visit their Facebook page to find a full and up to date list of products and collection points.
Beauty and Hygeine Packaging
Some retailers have a product return scheme such as LUSH – whereby you can return some of their products to store once used and receive a freebie or discount. Kiehls, Origin and Neals Yard have collection points in most stores where you can drop off any sort of beauty packaging from any brand for it to be recycled. This includes things like pumps, atomisers, sprays, tubes and bottles.
Return Schemes
Return schemes aren’t just for beauty products! See our blog post on different schemes run by companies for everything from printer cartridges to contact lenses.
Eco-Bricks
Eco-bricks are plastic bottles filled with a households single-use plastics that can’t be recycled in their area, such as plastic bags, clingfilm etc. If you’re thinking about making them, we advise checking out this page as it’s important to understand the consequences and have a clear destination in mind.
