Unwanted medicines

Medicines and health

You can take unused medicines, prescription or otherwise, and empty inhalers back to your local pharmacy, like Boots. Incidentally this applies to all unused medicines, including tablets or liquids. Do not be tempted to flush them down the loo!

Your local chemist, including all Boots pharmacies, are obliged to accept back unwanted medicines from patients.

If you have empty blister packs that contained medical tablets, these can be recycled in your blue top kerbside bin in the same way as all foil containers. Please do check the blister packs are empty.

Boots also take and recycle contact lenses.

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Recycling home page

Plastic and metal lids -Info updated Feb 23

Confusingly, different manufacturers have different instructions on their packaging - some say take lids off and some say leave them on. This is down to different councils have different recycling methods, and some can accept tops left on. (There are 338 collection authorities in England, 32 in London alone!)

RECYCLING UPDATE: Our message has always been to take the tops off plastic containers before recycling. All this changed from 1st September 2022 as we have improved our recycling process. If you live in West Sussex, you can now recycle, in your kerbside recycling bin, plastic bottles, plastic milk bottles, tetra packs and ketchup bottles. Any plastic bottle you did recycle before without the lid, can now be recycled with the plastic lid on. It does not matter what type of plastic the top is made of; we can even accept trigger sprays on plastic bottles.

The rules we have in West Sussex regarding tops is:

METAL BOTTLE TOPS: any colour - can go into your blue top recycling bin, any size from small beer bottle tops to big jar tops.

PLASTIC BOTTLE TOPS: any colour - can go into your blue top recycling bin.

But do not despair, as we extract all the bits of plastic and paper from the black bin and turn it into RDF - Refuse Derived Fuel. These are fuel pellets that are then used in industry in place of fossil fuels! So none of your plastic will end up in landfill from WSCC.

If a lid is discarded in the old way into your black top bin - do not despair! As we extract all the bits of plastic and paper from the black bin and turn it into RDF - Refuse Derived Fuel. These are fuel pellets that are then used in industry in place of fossil fuels! So none of your plastic will end up in landfill from WSCC.

However, did you know milk bottle tops are collected by charities?
Many of you collected milk bottle tops for the League of Friends at Princess Royal Hospital. They have stopped collecting and no longer have a bin in the hospital.
Instead, here are some of the places that still collect milk bottle tops. Remember only clean milk bottle tops, any colour. No other tops please.
The United Reformed Church - in the center of Hassocks village have a collection box
Lindfield – outside The Stand Up – Terracycle bin, for the benefit of Great Ormond Street Hospital. Haywards Heath Town Council Office, same charity.
Bay Tree Café - Haywards Heath, in the Orchards Shopping Centre.
Cuckfield – Second Saturday of every month at the food market held at the Rose & Crown car park. Hurstpierpoint – Village Centre (Library) – Hurst ReThink collection box support GOSH.

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Home coffee pods

Do you enjoy a cup of coffee at home, maybe you have a coffee machine that takes coffee pods? Let me introduce you to a new free recycling scheme ‘Podback’.

Podback is a coffee pod recycling service. Created in partnership with the biggest names in coffee pod systems, Nespresso, Nescafe, Dolce Gusto and Tassimo, to give people who enjoy the quality and taste of coffee pods a simple and easy way to recycle them. Just look up: www.podback.org and order some bags.

The bags are free. I order five at a time. Unfortunately, Mid Sussex District Council do not offer the kerbside option. You simple drop your used pods into the bag, which self-seals and return it freepost.

Another alternative to reduce plastic why not consider using stainless steel coffee capsules available for many machines? This way you can use you own favourite coffee. They are food grade stainless steel and easy to clean.

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RECYCLING HOME

Old computer cables and IT

Have a clear out of all those old IT items and cables sitting in a drawer or box. MSDC will collect small electrical items and recycle them. Kerbside collections of small electrical appliances and household batteries are every two weeks.

Items should be left out with your scheduled black lid rubbish bin. Collection space on the bin lorry is very limited. If your collection is missed, please hold on to your items and place them out with your next scheduled black top rubbish bin.

Keep the cable with the item. Little and often, in a plastic carrier bag helps. Recycling – take data cables, phones, tablets and desktop PCs to Vodafone stores.

Items accepted are: small electrical appliances such as IT and smart devices like desktop PCs; laptops; tablets; fax machines; printers; phones; smartphones; smart speakers and fitness wearables.

Repair – does your local Repair Café repair electrical items?

Recycling – take to your local recycling centre – the tip. Did you know that all electricals taken to the tip are recycled? To find your nearest local electrical recycling site, I would recommend this website: www.recycleyourelectricals.org.uk Do use the filter option: by item/ distance, for lots more options; donate; repair; recycle.

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Recycling home

Plastic flower pots

Most gardeners will admit to hoarding far too many pots in the garden shed. Unfortunately, garden plastics, for example plant pots, seed trays, tools and furniture, cannot be recycled in your kerbside recycling bin. The reason is that they are often made of a different type of plastic to the plastic used for household bottles, tubs and trays.

So how can you dispose of unwanted plastic plant pots?

• Do ask the retailer you bought your plants from if they will recycle used plastic plant pots.

• You can take plastic plant pots to B&Q stores, as they operate their own recycling scheme. Do you know they have a big recycling container that accepts small electrical items, batteries, light bulbs and florescent tubes too?

• Do offer them for free on social media sites or offer them to your local allotment holders.

• A national plant pot take-back scheme has just been launched by the Horticultural Trade Association (HTA), which will enable its members to send trays and pots for recycling. The HTA (with 1,800 garden centre members across the UK) says will not only enable members to become more sustainable but will also save them money.

You can now take these to Burgess Hill tip, where they can be deposited separately for recycling. - This is currently a trial to ensure that the items can be collected separately and the council will look at the feasibility of rolling it out to other sites in the future.

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General bin etiquette

Whilst many of us have been in lockdown, we have had an opportunity to declutter rooms, garages, or sheds. Under normal circumstances we would take the clutter to charity shops or to the HWRS (Household Waste Recycling Site), the TIP.

I would ask you not to simply dump all your declutter into your black top kerbside rubbish bin. Declutter is not household waste.

The Household Waste Recycling Site (the Tip)
Did you know that 80% of what you take to the Tip is recycled?

First organise all the rubbish at home for the Tip into different waste streams into boxes, so disposing is easy when he gets there!

Also remember to take your ID to show you are a West Sussex resident.

Your general waste bin

- Try to put as little as possible in this bin – can anything be reused?

- Bag or double bag all food waste.

- Check what can be recycled and put this clean, dry and loose into your recycling bin. Check this site for what can be recycled – more than you think - www.recycleforwestsussex.org

Your recycling bin

We want you to keep recycling, and you will need to get as much as possible in your bin.

- Cut up or rip up cardboard to cereal box size – great stress relief

- Plastics, squash or open out

- Do not leave recycling next to bin. They will not take it as there is a handling risk.

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Acrylic paint

Acrylic is a form of plastic, so we do need to be aware of how we dispose of it. To reduce anything getting into the water system I have been advised that before you wash out your brushes, you wipe them off first with paper - old newspaper will do - to remove as much paint as possible and put the paper into your black top rubbish bin. This is better than using an old cloth as the cloth cannot be put in your black top bin.

This way, the absolute minimum amount of plastic will enter the water system from your sink when you do wash your brushes! The way our water is processed means that it can cope with these small amounts.

Can you also make sure that any paint left on your palette is also disposed of into your black top bin. When your palette is dry do peel off as much as you can and this can also be wrapped in paper and disposed of into your black top bin.

Regarding the acrylic plastic you put into your black bin, do not despair. In West Sussex, we do recycle your black top bin contents and we extract all the plastic and paper, including your acrylic paint, and we turn it into Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF). These are fuel pellets that are then are sold to industry as industrial fuel.

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Till receipts

Up to about four or so years ago, till receipts were printed on special paper and were not able to be recycled. Remember when till receipts were on shiny paper?

Thanks to the pressure to recycle, supermarkets and other retailers changed to printing on ordinary paper so now all till receipts can be recycled. Also, the smallest supermarket till receipt has been designed so that it is large enough to be recycled, in case you ever wondered why you get such a big piece of paper when buying one item!

This has now become a good approximate measure. If a piece of paper or cardboard is smaller than a supermarket till receipt for one item, then it is too small to be recycled and should be treated like shredded paper and put into your black top rubbish kerbside bin. Use this as a size guide to what paper and cardboard can go into your blue top kerbside recycling bin.

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Reducing black bin waste

Recycling as many products and items in our blue top bins isn’t the only solution to waste management. Keeping the amount we throw in our black top bins to a minimum can go a long way too.

• Rather than wipes, you can use small, washable face cloths

• When shopping, pay attention to use by dates - keeping food waste to a minimum

• Replace cling film and invest in a pack of reusable plastic covers

• Face masks are now a part of our lives, so washable masks are a great investment

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Small electrical recycling service

Everything with a plug, battery or cable has the potential to be recycled. If you have an individual kerbside rubbish collection, you can recycle old or broken small electrical items at the kerbside.

Currently this service is not available if your bins are located in a communal bin store. You can find alternative electrical recycling options using the following link: https://bit.ly/2LcKBO3

How does the kerbside collection work? Most unwanted or broken small electrical appliances, those items powered by batteries or with a plug, cable or lead can be recycled at the kerbside. Small electrical appliance recycling is collected every two weeks with your normal scheduled rubbish collection.

• Little and Often - Please recycle “little and often” as space is limited on our collection vehicles for the storage of electrical items

• Bag It - Simply place the item(s) into a standard carrier size plastic bag (no larger than 35 x 40cm and not in black bin bags)

• Tie It – Securely tie the bag so the items do not fall out

• Recycle It - Place next to your black lidded rubbish bin on your scheduled collection day

For any items not on our kerbside collections checklist, please visit www.recycleyourelectricals.org.uk to find your nearest reuse or recycling point.

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