Bank your recycling this long weekend

Residents of Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire are being reminded that all bin collections will be one day later than usual next week, following the bank holiday weekend.

The collection scheduled for Friday 31 August will take place on Saturday 1 September.

The schedule returns to normal on Monday 3 September

South Cambridgeshire District Council’s Cabinet Member for Environmental Health and Licensing, Cllr Neil Gough, said: “We encourage everyone to recycle as much as possible. Foil trays from desserts and quiches, aluminium foil used to wrap your food, drinks cans and bottles and fruit punnets are all recyclable once empty of drinks and food. If you are out and about, you can take your recyclables back to your blue bin. And if you have a BBQ in your garden, why not prepare a bin for recyclables for your visitors to use? All food leftovers or culinary mishaps can be placed in your green bin together with paper kitchen towel or paper serviettes as well as the obvious garden clippings and weeds.”

Cambridge City Council’s Executive Councillor for Environmental Services and City Centre, Cllr Rosy Moore, said: “We all recycle a lot with the plethora of items acceptable in blue and green bins, but while planning your longer weekend please consider ways of reducing waste too. There are plenty of options from re-usable alternatives to reducing food waste. For example, using real cutlery and crockery, or lighter re-usable plastic options, are great ways to keep your waste down. If you happen to use bio-degradable plates and cups please do not place them in your green bin, because just like biobags, they are not suitable for the process we use. You can put them in your home compositing bin, and if you don’t have one then they have to go to your black bin.”

Top recycling tips are:

• Squash: This will give you more space in your bin and helps us to use space in our recycling trucks more efficiently, reducing the number of times we have to tip off.
• Empty packaging so there’s no food or liquid left in recyclables. Leftover food and liquids make it more difficult and expensive to recycle, and can spoil other materials in your bin too.
• Place food waste in your green bin with no packaging. You can wrap food waste in newspaper. Kitchen caddy liners need to be made of paper.
• Place recycling in the blue bin loose, not in bags.

There is also a wide range of items that can be recycled at Cambridgeshire’s Household Recycling Centres. For more information about these, visit www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk.

More information about bin collections and waste services can be found at www.scambs.gov.uk/recycling for South Cambridgeshire residents or www.cambridge.gov.uk/recycling for those living in Cambridge.

Waste and recycling collections across Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire are carried out by the Greater Cambridge Shared Waste Service, a partnership between Cambridge City Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council.