Newcastle City Council

Home / Environment / Rubbish, waste and recycling / Blue Recycle Bins

Your Blue Bin - what recyclable materials are collected?

Use the main part of the blue bin for:

Cartons (please flatten if possible)
Plastic bottles (please flatten if possible)
Cardboard (please flatten if possible)
Newspaper, magazines and paper including letters, flyers, leaflets, white and brown envelopes (no plastic coated paper or bound files)
Telephone directories and yellow pages
Food and drink cans (please rinse)
Foil and foil trays (please rinse)
Empty aerosol cans
Textiles (put in a plastic carrier bag to help keep clean). If possible, donate your good quality textiles to a charity shop.

 Use the black caddy for:

Glass bottles and jars (please rinse)
Batteries (please put in a clear plastic bag on top of the glass)

• Remember that glass goes in the caddy and not the bin.  The materials in the main part of the bin are sorted by hand, so any glass put in this section could cause injuries and could contaminate the paper and cardboard. If this happens the paper mill will reject the paper and card and it won't be recycled. 
• If you live in a flat, you may use a slightly different recycling system to the above. Please see our flats recycling page for more information.
• If you have too much glass for the caddy (particuarly over Christmas or New Year) use the Glass Banks at the Supermarket Car Parks and the City's three Household Waste and Recycling Centres (open seven days a week).

For more information go to our A - Z to reducing and resusing waste and for schools there is more information on our Waste Resources page.

NEW - You can win prizes for recycling

Our new recycling prize draw aims to increase recycling by offering rewards to householders for recycling aerosols, glass jars and food and drink cartons using their household recycling bin.

Every householder that registers for the scheme will receive a sheet of stickers and be asked to place one sticker on each aerosol, glass jar or food and drink carton that they put in their household recycling bin.  Each month a random draw will be made from the stickered recycled items that are found and the winner will receive a prize up to the value of £250 which could include items such as a laptop, games console or clothes vouchers. The scheme will be running from November 2012 to June 2013.

For details and to register, visit www.recycle-more.co.uk/nerewards or phone 08448 444 546

What happens to my recycling after it's collected?

It is taken to a recycling depot in Wallsend were the different materials are sorted and sent to be recycled. For more information, please visit our 'What happens to my recycling' page.

Page last updated: 11 April, 2013