How to recycle in the UK

Almost everything is recyclable in theory. But, in practice, whether a product actually is depends on whether the process is effective and economically viable. Some products are easier to recycle than others.

Here we highlight the labels to look out for and explain what they mean. We also clarify what you can do with all common types of packaging and how you can help your council recycle more effectively. 

Plus, get our tips on how to cut your packaging use overall.

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Plastics recycling

According to the results of the latest Big Plastic Count, the average household disposes of 60 pieces of plastic packaging every week – 81% of which is food and drink packaging. That equates to 90 billion pieces of plastic thrown away by UK households every year. The UK produces more plastic waste per person than almost any other nation - second only to the US.

The latest survey from plastics recycling member charity RECOUP also found that only 42% of the plastic that households dispose of is collected for recycling. 

While there are many types of plastic, there are some you are likely to come across regularly in everyday packaging. You may notice a number surrounded by triangular arrows stamped or embossed on packaging; this is known as a plastic resin code and denotes the category of plastic the product is made of. 

However, this isn't that useful in telling you what to do with the packaging, as more and more recycling options have become available over the years. It's better to look for the OPRL (on-pack recycling label) or other recycling information to find out what to do with packaging.

Most common plastic packaging

	Products	What is it made of?	Next life	Ease of recycling	Collected at kerbside?
	Soft drinks and water bottles, fruit punnets	Polyethylene terephthalate (PET)	More PET bottles and products	Easy	Yes. All councils
	Milk bottles, cleaning products, toiletry bottles	High-density polyethylene (HDPE)	More milk bottles, pipes and building materials	Easy	Yes. All councils
	Yoghurt pots, margarine/spreadable butter tubs, microwaveable meal trays, toiletries	Polypropylene (PP)	Gardening materials, clothing fibres, bins or plastic trays	Easy	Yes. Most councils
	Food bags such as bread bags, shopping bags, magazine wrapping	Low-density polyethylene (LDPE)	Bin liners, plastic furniture, carrier bags such as 'bags for life', pallet wrapping	Manageable	Rarely. Take to a supermarket collection point instead
	Food packaging such as crisp packets, salad bags, pet and baby food pouches	Different plastics. Some are made of flexible PP, others are composite materials with a layer of aluminium	Plastic furniture, construction materials	Difficult	No. But some supermarkets collection points accept them

HDPE and PET drinks bottles have a really high recycling rate: over three quarters of what's put on the market is collected and recycled. 

Natural rHDPE is the highest-value recycled plastic on the market and can easily be turned into milk bottles. Coloured rHDPE may become other things such as pipes and building materials.

Clear PET bottles are simplest for recyclers as they can be identified as food-grade plastic and so can be turned back into more plastic drinks bottles. 

Recently, manufacturers such as Britvic, which makes 7Up, and Coca-Cola, which makes Sprite, have switched away from their green plastic bottles to clear bottles. This move means that those bottles can be recycled as food grade plastic, which in turn will allow manufacturers to increase the amount of recycled plastic in their bottles. 

It’s now more common to see items that are 100% recycled PET or rPET. PET can be recycled around 10 times.

A UK Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) for plastic bottles and aluminium cans (not glass) where consumers can receive a small cash sum for returning their containers to specific points, such as retailers, has recently been delayed until 2027.

Yoghurts pots, tubs and plastic trays are often made of PP (resin code 5). This can be recycled but can’t be turned back into food packaging because it's currently too difficult to separate the used PP food packaging from other types of packaging - and food safety regulations mean they must be kept separate. Technology is trying to change this through invisible labelling that allows food packaging to be sorted from non-food packaging. PP is usually only recycled once.

Polystyrene (PS) is found less and less in everyday packaging, though some takeaway containers and cups may still be made of it. It isn't commonly recycled so you should put this in your general waste bin.

PVC is often found in clingfilm but is also common in items such as tents, shower curtains or building materials. It can't be recycled through household recycling collections.

Plastic bags, wrapping and other flexible plastics

It used to be very difficult for people to recycle plastic bags and wrapping, and while kerbside collection is still limited to a small number of councils (12% of UK councils in 2023 according to RECOUP), most supermarkets now offer a front-of-store recycling service for this packaging. Some also accept pet food and baby food pouches and salad bags. Or try specific store schemes such as the Pets at Home pet food pouch recycling.

Some types of flexible plastics are still very hard to recycle effectively: they can't be turned back into food packaging because of safety regulations, they have to be recycled at specialist plants, and some materials don’t have recycling solutions available apart from at trial stage yet, meaning some of it may not be being recycled at all at the moment, and may be being incinerated.

Supermarket collection points are a stepping stone towards plans to make plastic bags and wrapping, and potentially other flexible plastics, recyclable as part of household collections in a few years' time. 

Chemical recycling

Chemical recycling (which breaks plastics down into their original building blocks so they can be treated as virgin plastic) could be an answer to dealing with some of these hard-to-recycle plastics, but it has yet to prove its viability at scale. And environmental campaigners such as Greenpeace argue that chemical recycling distracts from the message that ultimately everyone needs to reduce their plastic consumption.

A chemical recycling plant in Teesside, ReNew ELP is slated to open sometime in 2024 (delayed from 2023) and will have inital capacity to process 20,000 tonnes of plastic which will rise to 80,000 tonnes when its operational ability expands. Another example of a chemical recycler attempting to provide solutions to complex plastic packaging is Enval, which uses microwave technology to separate metal and plastic laminate such as cat food pouches so they can be reused.

Tips for better plastics recycling

• Screw lids back on The general rule is to screw plastic lids back on to their bottles and push straws back into cartons before recycling. On their own they are too small to make it through most recycling sorting machines (many will reject anything narrower than 40mm). 
• Squash bottles Squash plastic bottles before you put them out for recycling. This not only saves space, but this also stops bottles rolling off the sorting machine conveyor belts.
• Recycle at the supermarket Take recyclable plastic film and leftover carrier bags back to recycling points at big supermarkets.
• Empty and rinse If there’s residual food waste left in your recycling, empty it and give it a quick rinse. They don’t need to be sparkling clean, but a half-full yoghurt pot or baked bean tin, for example, risk contaminating porous materials such as paper and card in the same recycling load.
• Recycle dark-coloured tubs and trays Black plastic not being recyclable is largely a thing of the past. Most manufacturers now use a non-carbon type of black so optical sorters can detect it, or have moved to using clear plastic.
• Don't recycle PVC clingfilm. As an alternative, some supermarkets sell non-PVC clingfilm, usually made of LDPE, but this would need to be taken to a supermarket collection point unless your council collects soft plastics.
• Check plastic household items Plastic toys or rigid household plastic items shouldn't go in your recycling bin. Plastic cutlery generally can't be recycled.
• Never put items containing batteries in recycling Batteries, particularly lithium-ion ones, are the cause of a huge number of fires at recycling plants, which endanger lives and cause plant shutdowns.
• Put compostable plastics in your general rubbish They can't be recycled and can only go in your home compost if they carry the home compost symbol – mostly only found on food caddy liners.

Reduce your plastic use

While it's important to recycle the plastics that we do use, it's much better for the planet if we reduce the amount we buy in the first place. 

Use reusable water bottles and coffee cups, try out alternatives to cling film and eschew disposable cutlery and takeaway containers where possible. You can also choose to buy loose fruit and veg without any packaging at the supermarket. 

If you can, support local zero-waste supermarkets or shops that let you refill your own containers with their goods. And look into local milk delivery services that reuse glass bottles instead of buying plastic. 

Try to remember to take your reusable bags to the shops. A recent Environmental Impact Assessment report found that the number of shopping bags sold in the UK in a year averaged out to almost 57 per household – the thicker, heavy material has a weighty carbon cost.

Consider too the plastic packaging that you do need to buy: more complex, multi-layered packaging that contains different materials such as metal and plastic film is harder to recycle than packaging made of one material, so if simple packaging is a viable alternative, choose it.

Glass recycling

Glass is infinitely 100% recyclable and nearly 69% of glass bottles and jars placed on the market were recycled in 2021. The majority of glass is recycled in the UK (over 80%) rather than being exported like some other materials.

Your typical glass container won’t contain 100% recycled glass as manufacturers tend to want colour and composition consistency so add some virgin material. A green wine bottle contains, on average, around 68% recycled material; a clear bottle far less – around a third.

Recycled glass is called cullet and it melts at a lower temperature than virgin materials, making its use cost effective and environmentally beneficial. But glass production and transportation (because of its weight) still has a heavy carbon toll. Single use wine bottles, for example, can have a higher carbon cost than PET bottles or boxed wine. 

A recent report carried out by Imperial College London and Veolia calculated that if all plastic bottles used globally were made from glass instead, the additional carbon emissions (87.4Mtonnes of CO2eq annually) would be equivalent to powering 22 coal-fired plants a year.

Tips for better glass recycling

• Don’t recycle broken glass at home It’s dangerous for collectors. Broken glass in bottle banks isn't a problem as this is carefully handled. 
• Don't recycle drinking glasses, Pyrex, flat glass or light bulbs Typically these items will not melt in the furnace and can cause expensive furnace damage or affect the end product. Take light bulbs to a dedicated recycling centre.
• Leave lids on (unless told otherwise) Some councils advise you to keep jar lids on glass jars and others to take them off. If in doubt, leave the lids on and they will be removed at the material recovery facility (MRF).
• Reuse rather than recycle glass where possible.

Paper recycling

Paper and card make the biggest percentage of what a material recovery facility (MRF) sorts, and quantities of recovered paper are going up all the time thanks to our increased reliance on online deliveries.

Around 80% of UK-made paper is made up of partly recycled content. But the number of UK paper mills has fallen in recent years and we exported 68% of our waste paper and card in 2022. 

Paper can be recycled around six times before the fibres get too short. Recycled toilet paper, kitchen towel and egg boxes can be end-of-life products for short paper fibres. 

Tetra Pak cartons are mostly made of paper so are often collected as such. Not all councils collect them because they must all be sent to one factory in Yorkshire, which breaks them down into their component parts. 

Tetra Pak carton fibre is turned into the paper lining for a type of plasterboard for use in industrial applications, while the plastic and aluminium is currently sent for energy recovery (ie incinerated and the energy used to generate electricity or heat). Tetra Pak is working on local recycling solutions and alternative materials including a bio-based plastic made from sugar cane.

Tips for better paper recycling

• Recycle greasy pizza boxes Whether this is OK is a common question. According to Recycle Now you can usually recycle them as long as they are empty. The Confederation of Paper Industries agrees that as long as it’s just marking or staining they should be OK. However, visible quantities of food are not – if you can’t clean food stuff off, put contaminated sections in your rubbish bin.
• Remove tape from wrapping paper if you can A little bit is OK as it will come off in the pulping process, but too much sticky tape can cause problems with the sorting machinery.
• Recycle envelopes with plastic windows These are generally OK as the pulping process with separate the two.

Metal recycling

Aluminium such as drinks cans and foil and steel (most tinned foods) have very good recycling rates and are high-value materials for MRFs to recover.

Steel is picked at MRFs by magnets above the conveyor belts that move the waste through the plant. It’s a very efficient process. Aluminium is separated from other materials by eddy currents (like a reverse magnet).

Both can be endlessly recycled and it's more beneficial - both economically and environmentally - to use recycled material over virgin metals.

Recycle Now says that recycling aluminium requires only around 5% of the energy and emissions needed to make it from its raw material, bauxite. 

Around 75% of the aluminium ever manufactured is still in circulation today.

Tips for better metal recycling

• Collect steel metal caps Put beer bottle caps and other metal caps in a steel can and squash the top when ready to put in the recycling so they won’t be lost during the recycling process.
• Scrunch up foil Foil (if your council accepts it – our snapshot research into what councils accept found that some do not) should be clean and ideally scrunched into a ball that’s tennis-ball-sized or larger.

Food waste

70% (6.6mt) of the annual 9.5 million tonnes of total food waste comes from households. 

According to Our World in Data, food waste is responsible for 6% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

The ultimate goal is to reduce this, but unavoidable food waste should be dealt with appropriately. In 2018, Wrap, the waste and resources action programme, estimated a third of household food waste went down the sewer or to landfill where it releases harmful emissions. Nearly half (3mt) went to energy recovery or landspreading with only 20% (1.3mt) being composted or anaerobically digested – the best way to deal with food waste.

Anaerobic digestion means the food is broken down by micro-organisms producing biogas (used for electricity) and ‘digestate’ – a fertiliser.

Currently around half of English councils don't have any kind of food waste collection. In Wales and Northern Ireland, food waste collection is mandatory. Most Scottish local authorities provide some kind of food waste collection service.

Food waste collections are due to become mandatory for all English councils by the end of March 2026.

Tips for better food waste recycling and reducing food waste

• Line your food caddy with a compostable liner Unless your council specifically requests otherwise. Even though the bags are removed at the plant, fragments contaminate the resulting compost or fertiliser with plastic. The seedling logo tells you that the liner is truly compostable.
• Use common sense with best-before dates. Many supermarkets have removed best-before dates from fruit and veg. A recent Wrap study found participants were more likely to throw away still edible items when they had an expired best-before date on them.  
• Keep most fruit and veg in the fridge It will last much longer. Exceptions include bananas and avocados (unless already ripe). It used to be advised that potatoes were kept out of the fridge but the FSA has recently revised this advice.
• Make sure your fridge is at the optimum temperature Wrap research found that cutting the fridge temperature by 5°C could double the shelf life of some food products.

Packaging symbols explained

Symbol	What does it mean
	Packaging can be recycled but doesn't mean that your local council collects it
	Producer of the product has complied with packaging waste legislations but doesn't tell you if the product is recyclable or not
	75% or more of UK local authorities collect and effectively recycle it
	50% or less of UK local authorities collect and effectively recycle it
	Identifies the type of plastic the packaging is made from
	Made of aluminium
	Certified by the Forest Stewardship Council – a forest certification scheme for paper and wood based around sustainability

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Labelling and recycling

Mandatory labelling telling you what to do with packaging should arrive by 2027.

As things stand, labelling is still confusing. 

We asked 1097 members in July 2022 about the different packaging symbols and found 48% thought the green dot logo meant something can be recycled (it actually means the manufacturer has complied with packaging waste legislation but has nothing to do with the packaging’s recyclability). And 32% of people thought the compostable seedling logo meant packaging was recyclable when in fact compostable products contaminate recycling and should go in your general rubbish.

The best label to look for is the OPRL (on-pack recycling label). For packaging to carry the OPRL green 'Recycle' label, 75% or more of UK local authorities must collect and effectively recycle it. If the packaging is labelled 'Don’t Recycle' it means less than 50% of local authorities collect it. You can check Recycle Now to see what your council allows.

Plastic bags and wrapping can be recycled at supermarkets and may carry the label ‘recycle with bags at large supermarkets’. Some may not carry the label yet but should still be recyclable at stores.

Don't 'wishcycle'

Wishcycling is putting things that can’t be recycled – especially batteries – in the recycling bin. A recent report from Wrap estimates that nearly 17% of what arrives at a MRF are contaminants or what’s known as ‘non-target’ materials. Some items can be removed from the conveyors fairly simply (though it takes time and therefore costs money), others ruin good-quality recycling. Contaminants include:

• Pyrex and drinking glasses
• pots, pans and cutlery
• electrical items
• textiles
• mirrors
• pet litter and pet waste
• sanitary products
• animal bedding
• nappies
• food waste.

Lithium-ion batteries are a particularly bad problem. The Environmental Services Association (ESA) has collected data that shows that at least 250 fires are started every year by 'zombie batteries' in recycling or waste management facilities causing plant shutdown and endangering lives. Batteries in power tools, children's toys, smartphones and tablets should all be disposed of properly. To find local battery recycling points, visit Takecharge.org.uk. 

Recyclenow.com also contains this information as well as giving information on what your local authority does and doesn't collect.