FAQs – Recycling

Simply most of the supermarkets will take ‘soft’ plastic such as their own bags and bread bags. If it feels soft and does not spring back when scrunched then it can go into their bag recycling. Some offer both soft and crinkly plastic recycling. It is worth checking your local supermarket and seeing what their programme includes.

There are recycling schemes that Win on Waste supports that will take some plastics and raise funds for charity. This is sponsored by the producer and they determine what they will fund in the waste stream so whilst it seems that packets are made from the same material they may not be included in what is accepted and would contaminate the stream thereby stopping the charity gaining funds.

Most pharmacists will take them along with any unused prescription medication.

Pill packets also known as blister packs are made from multiple materials and so cannot be recycled easily. Fair Ground shop in the Corn Market will take them but ask you cut them to smaller pieces. Boots stores have a scheme linked to their reward card but if you don’t want to use their app you can just drop them into their collection boxes. Certain Superdrug stores will also have a recycle box.

Aluminium foil can now be put in the kerbside collection. To check it is foil and not silver coloured plastic scrunch it and if it stays put it is foil otherwise it’s plastic. Ensure it is clean and scrunch into larger blocks to make it easier to be collected.

As for foil Kerbside collection will now take tetrapacks.

Any shop that sells batteries must provide a recycling scheme for them. You can take them to your local council recycling centre or some kerbside recycling will take them in a bag provided. There is a battery recycling tub on the counter in Wimborne Waitrose.

Win on Waste will take print cartridges but not toners. You can take both to your local council recycling centre where there are red topped bins just for them. It asks that you remove all packaging.

If you can wait until the next DonateIT session (see Planet Wimborne calendar for dates) you can donate them where they will be securely wiped and then either refurbished for use by deserving children or used for parts or to raise funds for the programme. DonateIT will take Laptops, tablets, games consoles, satnavs, digital cameras etc. It cannot take monitors, printers and scanners. For any item that does not have data stored you can take it to your local council recycling centre. Alternatively you can offer it on the Trash nothing website – https://trashnothing.com/beta/ where you can set the local area it will be offered to.

There is a scheme where you can apply for a pouch and post back the coffee pods. See link. https://podback.org

If they are pre-recorded some charity shops will take them. If they are new, unused recordable then offer them on Trash Nothing website – https://trashnothing.com/beta/ For home recorded CDs and Videos there is nothing currently available. Videos you can deconstruct and recycle some of the parts but the tape would have to go in the rubbish. For CDs they can be used as bird scarers or some schools and groups will take them for crafting.

We are fortunate to have a good selection of charity shops in Wimborne. Most will take all items. For books the Museum has a very good second-hand book area in their shop that provide funds to the museum. Win on Waste website has links to recycling directories – http://winonwaste.org/recycling-resources/ – where charities post the items they need and you may find some of the more unusual items listed there. There is always Trash nothing where you can post items in a set area for people to collect.