Get it sorted
Household recycling
Find out how to correctly sort your recycling and what happens to it after collection.
Recycling; let's get it sorted!
Learn more about what goes where in Bristol’s kerbside recycling system. Click on each type of recycling container to find out what it should be used for.
Place in the box:
- Paper
- Magazines
- Glass
Place in separate, untied bags:
- Usable and dry textiles
- Batteries
- Shoes (tied in pairs)
- Small electric items such as toasters, mobile phones and remote controls
- Spectacles
Place next to the box:
- Engine oil (in a sealed container)
- Car batteries
Give these items a quick rinse, squash them if they’re squashable and place in the green box:
- Cans
- Plastic bottles
- Lids and caps
- Plastic packaging (no black plastic)
- Aerosols (empty with the lids removed)
- Foil
All your leftover cooked and uncooked food should go in the brown food bin, including:
- Fruit and vegetables
- Cheese and dairy
- Meat, fish and bones
- Plate scrapings
- Eggshells
- Bread, pasta, rice and cereal
- Coffee grounds and tea bags
You can use a newspaper, compostable liner or an old plastic bag to line your food waste caddy.
All your clean cardboard recycling should go in the blue bag. Remember, it all needs to fit inside the bag in order to be collected so you will need to flatten, fold or cut up any boxes.
- Boxes (remove tape)
- Cartons (rinsed and squashed)
- Greetings cards (no glitter)
- Brown paper
- Cardboard tubes
Watch our 'Get It Sorted' guide to recycling
Download a recycling guide
Do you have your own recycling boxes and bins? This is the guide for you.
Kerbside recycling guide
(2 MB)
Do you share recycling bins with your neighbours? This handy guide for mini recycling centres (MRC) will tell you everything you need to know.
Mini recycling centre (MRC) guide
(2 MB)
What happens to your recycling?
Cardboard
Once your cardboard has been collected it is transported to the local reprocessing plant where it is flat packed and baled before being soaked, pulped and repurposed back into new cardboard packaging.
Plastic
After your plastic recycling is collected, the crews transport it to our waste transfer station to be compacted into bales. The bales of plastic go to the local processing plant where the plastic is broken down and cleaned. These smaller pieces of plastic can then be melted and moulded into new plastic items.
Glass
Glass can be melted down and turned into new items over and over again, so it’s important to always put it in your recycling box rather than your wheelie bin. Glass in your recycling box is transported to the local reprocessing plant where it is separated into different colours and items such as light bulbs and windowpanes are removed. The glass is then melted down and moulded back into new glass items.
Glass recycling
Metal
Recyclable metal is taken it the local processing plant to be separated. The metal elements are then melted and treated to make new raw materials. Once completed, the recycled metal can be used in the production of a new product.
Metal matters
Garden waste
Bristol’s green and garden waste is composted and used by local farmers as fertiliser. You can also buy the compost from our Reuse shop at the Avonmouth Recycling Centre.
Top tips for garden waste
Food waste
Bristol’s food waste is taken to GENeco in Avonmouth where it is processed by an ‘anaerobic digester’, a bit of kit which acts like a giant stomach and turns the food waste into methane-rich biogas which is used to generate electricity and gas for 6,500 homes in Bristol.
Food waste reduction tips