Recycling services

Give your bras a new lease of life and help raise vital funds for research into secondary spread breast cancer.

Deposit your used, new or surplus bras into a bra bank near you or send them by post.

For more information visit Against Breast Cancer.
 

The Beauty Council

The beauty industry is a source of joy for so many of us, helping people to look and feel their best. However, this currently comes at the cost of our planet. 

The British Beauty Council are working with residents, brands, retailers and salons to offer a way to recycle your used beauty containers.

Beauty Council website

Boots Scan2Recycle

To help customers shop and consume more sustainably, Boots UK has launched a New recycling scheme, encouraging everyone to bring back their empty, hard-to-recycle health, beauty and wellness products.

From old mascaras and empty toothpaste tubes, to finished lipsticks and empty vitamin pots. 

Scan2Recycle website 

Perfume bottles  

Recycling perfume bottles at The Perfume Shop couldn’t be easier. Simply, bring your empty bottle or bottles to your nearest store, and they’ll recycle them for you. As a big thank you when you recycle perfume bottles through their scheme, they’ll give you 15% off your next purchase in-store or online. 

Home coffee machines are a great alternative to your favourite barista made coffee, with coffee pods providing a variety of coffee styles at the touch of a button.

Did you know that most coffee pods are recyclable? Recycling points are located at Stafferton Way Household Waste and Recycling Centre, as well as local supermarkets.

• Your pods will be recycled here in the UK.
• The bags of aluminium and plastic pods are taken to East Yorkshire where they are shredded to remove the coffee. The plastic and aluminium are then sent to specialist recycling plants. Aluminium pods are recycled in South Wales.  They are melted and used in the manufacture of drink cans and car components. 
• Plastic pods are recycled in East Yorkshire. They turned into pellets which are used to make a variety of durable products, including building materials and packaging crates.
• The coffee grounds are taken to a food waste recycling plant in South Yorkshire.  Here they are processed to become renewable energy (biogas) to power businesses and homes using a process called anaerobic digestion.  The by-product of the process is a nutrient-rich bio-fertiliser, which is supplied to local farmers for use as a soil improver.

To find your nearest coffee pod recycling point, use the recycling locator on the Podback website.  

If you are buying a new household product, such as a washing machine, check first with the company you are buying from, as many will collect your old one for free and at the same time as delivering your new item.

If your large household items are in a good, reusable condition, consider donating them to charities.

Collections are usually free for items such as tables and chairs, sofas with the fire-resistant label, beds, chests of drawers, cabinets and clean mattresses with the fire-resistant label. They also collect electrical in good condition and working order with a UK plug.

Thames hospice offer free furniture collections of furniture and homeware. The sale of your donations helps raise vital funds so they can care for local people with life-limiting illnesses. 

British heart Foundation collect furniture and electrical items from your home for free. The items you donate are then sold in their furniture stores to help fund their lifesaving research. Visit their website for details or to book a collection.  

The Baby Bank has been helping families across Berkshire and surrounding since 2015, collecting good quality clothes, equipment and furniture for families in need. This includes items such as school uniforms, cots, prams and buggies, and essential supplies like baby bottles, nappies and clothing bundles.  

Freegle and online market places offer a space to advertise your items to local residents or community groups for free, keeping items in use for longer. You may even find a new item for yourself whilst browsing.

Items not in reusable condition

For items not in a reusable condition including mattresses, these can be taken to Stafferton Way Household Waste and Recycling Centre for free, or you can book a chargeable large items collection.

Inhalers

Used inhaler cannisters should never be thrown into a bin. All used inhalers should be returned to your nearest pharmacy for them to dispose of safely. Inhalers are thermally treated to destroy the greenhouse gases. This environmentally safe disposal route is available at all pharmacies and is paid for by NHS England.

Medicine blister packets

Medicine blister packets can be dropped off at:

• Participating Boots stores.
• Superdrug pharmacies. Please note: Superdrug stores without a pharmacy do not participate in this scheme and cannot accept blister packets for recycling.

Insulin pens

Did you know that discarded insulin pens generate around 1.5 thousand tonnes of waste every year in the UK? That's a lot of plastic and metal that could be recycled instead.

RePen is a free service for recycling the following insulin pens:

• Toujeo® SoloStar®
• Toujeo® DoubleStar™
• Lantus® SoloStar®
• Trurapi▼® SoloStar®
• Apidra® SoloStar®

It's easy to participate. Just order a collection envelope online,  fill with your used disposable insulin pens and post back to be recycled, free of charge.

Users of Novo Nordisk insulin pens can request a free PenCycle box for their home. Order one here to start recycling.

Recycle soft plastics, such as crisp packets, bread bags, vegetable packaging and carrier bags at participating stores. Soft plastics should be clean and dry, and include items such as:

• baby food pouches.
• bread bags.
• carrier bags.
• cereal liners.
• cheese, fish and meat wrapping.
• cling film.
• crisps, biscuit and chocolate wrapping.
• food bags.
• pet food pouches.
• salad, pasta and rice bags.

Many large supermarkets have collection points at selected stores. Check at your local branch for details including:

• Aldi.
• Asda.
• Coop.
• Sainsburys.
• Tesco.
• Waitrose.

Terracycle have a variety of recycling options including for:

• Aqua Optima water filters.
• Biscuits and snacks packaging.
• Disposable and washing up gloves.
• Warburtons bread wrappers.

Find out how to recycle these items plus many more by visiting the Terracycle website.