Recycling, household rubbish and garden waste subscription collection policies

Under Section 46 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 (Part 2) the Waste Collection Authority (Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council) has the power to specify the containers to be used for various materials.

The council has adopted a strategy where each household will have a wheelie bin for their mixed recycling along with a strong bag for paper and card. These should be presented together each fortnight for collection. You have a choice over how you present them. If your bag is light enough, you can put it into the top of your recycling bin by placing it on top of your other recycling. Otherwise, please leave it beside your recycling bin.

If you sometimes have more card than fits in your blue bag, you can break it down into bag-sized pieces, and bundle them next to your recycling bag and bin. You’ll need to tie them up so they don’t blow around. Please don’t use a plastic bag for this extra waste - we can’t take those.

Containers

The council provides a 70 litre strong blue bag for:

• Paper (all sorts, including shredded paper) 

• Card (greetings cards, packets, corrugated, clean pizza boxes).

The council provides a 240 litre blue wheelie bin for:

• plastic bottles, pots, tubs and trays 

• glass bottles and jars 

• cans, tins, clean foil and empty aerosols.

We do not guarantee that any bin we provide will be new.  We may supply a clean, good-quality one which has been used before.

If we judge that your property is unsuitable for a wheelie bin because it has no outside storage space, is up/down steps from the pavement, has deep gravel, or is inaccessible for our vehicle fleet, we may have to collect your recyclable using 2 bags - one standard one for paper and card, and a second bag for the materials which would otherwise go into your recycling bin. In this situation we will provide you with bags, and you shouldn’t provide your own.

We make a charge for the delivery of new, additional and replacement containers. Keep containers safely within your property between collections.

Extra capacity

If you need more bags or bins to hold your recycling, we will deliver them within 10 working days.

If there are special circumstances where you need additional containers sooner, please let us know and we will use our best endeavours to get them to you sooner. Contact us through the website, by email or by phone.

Contamination

If you put things which we don’t collect for recycling into your blue bag or blue bin we will not be able to collect them, so your container will be left. We’ll put a bright sticker on your container advising you that it contains the wrong materials and record it on our in-cab devices.

You must bring the container back within your property boundary. We will follow up the sticker with an advice letter to your property.  

If you remove the contaminating item, we will empty the container on the next scheduled collection day.