 Pupils and the headteacher at All Saints Church of England Primary School, Wokingham, meet our recycling team
Getting to know you - and help you recycle!
Our new recycling engagement team have had a busy few weeks, calling at doorsteps across the borough and talking to residents at community events.
They've also been giving assemblies at local schools, and they've been very impressed by the thoughtful questions that pupils have asked.
This is all part of our efforts to help everyone recycle more as we prepare to change how we collect household waste this summer.
We recycle 57 per cent of our waste, which is much higher than many councils but we still need to improve as we could be recycling as much as 70 per cent.
As well as reducing carbon emissions, this will save a significant amount of money as it costs less to recycle waste than to dispose of it as rubbish.
It'll also help us meet, and hopefully exceed, the recycling targets that the Government will require all councils to reach in years to come.
 Get ready for a greener future as changes approach
From mid-August, we'll be collecting rubbish every two weeks from a new 180-litre black wheeled bin instead of the existing blue bags.
You'll be getting your bin from late May onwards. A leaflet explaining your first collection dates and other useful information will come later.
Recycling will also be collected every two weeks, on weeks when rubbish isn't collected, from the same green bags.
There's no limit on how many green bags you put out, but up to four should be enough. Our food waste collections are staying weekly.
Your regular collection day won't change, but collections could be earlier so you'll need to put everything out the night before.
If you need more green bags or a food waste bin, you can collect them free of charge from one of our community hubs.
Our waste collection changes webpage is now easier than ever to remember! If a friend or family member wants to find out more, you can just tell them to check out wokingham.gov.uk/newbin for all they need to know.
 Recycling hints and tips are just a tap away
If you could use some help recycling more of your waste, or creating less in the first place, you can now get advice from a new smartphone app.
As part of the re3 waste management partnership between us, Bracknell Forest and Reading Borough Council, we've joined forces with new start-up Scrapp.
The company's free app for Apple and Android is designed to explain the ins and outs of recycling in an accessible, engaging and user-friendly way.
It's linked to a database of more than 36 million products, and you can scan a barcode to find out the most responsible way to dispose of it.
The app will soon also include bin reminders, which will help you to make the most of your collections and recycle as much as you can.
Keeping up the quality of our recycling
According to waste reduction charity WRAP, more than 80 per cent of UK households are typically putting out five items per collection that can't be recycled.
Contaminating recycling with these items can prevent entire loads from being recycled, forcing them to be disposed of as rubbish instead.
Burning waste for energy or sending it to landfill is not only more expensive than recycling it, but it also costs us far more.
Using Scrapp will help reduce contamination - and don't forget, there's more guidance on rubbish and recycling on our website.
 Image: Boots
Health and beauty waste can be recycled too!
Although many types of plastic waste can be recycled through kerbside collections, there are others that can't - but you can drop them off at some shops.
Many branches of Boots, including its stores at Market Place in Wokingham and Crockhamwell Road in Woodley, will accept hard-to-recycle health and beauty items under its Recycle at Boots scheme.
These include things like make-up palettes and compacts, lipsticks, toothpaste tubes, lotion or cream pumps and blister packs for medicines or vitamins.
Boots will also recycle batteries or things like contact lenses and insulin injector pens. You can even collect points for recycling if you have a Boots Advantage Card.
 Plastics you can recycle at home
You can put almost any plastic bottles, pots, tubs or trays into your green bag, but please wash them out and squash them down to save space.
Please don't put them in your green bag if they're black, as black plastics can't be recycled. However, all other colours are fine.
This applies to any plastic containers, whether they contain health products like shampoo or other things like food and drink.
Soft plastics, which are films like wrapping or crisp packets, also can't be recycled at home but you can recycle them at some supermarkets.
You can't recycle plastic foams like polystyrene, so these go in your rubbish.
 Free compost will help grow community spirit
Schools and community groups in Wokingham Borough can now apply for free bags of high-quality compost made from recycled garden waste.
This peat-free compost is being offered to successful applicants under the re3 waste management partnership's popular re3Grow Community Scheme.
Since its launch, it has donated some 3,300 bags of compost - or 132,200 litres, enough to fill 551 of our garden waste bins.
These have gone to more than 150 schools or groups, supporting more than 30,000 people either directly or indirectly.
They've gone towards community allotments, growing produce for food banks, planting at sensory gardens, health-boosting gardening sessions and more.
 Your garden waste doesn't go to waste!
This compost, which meets industry standards for quality, is made from the cuttings and leaves that we collect from our fortnightly garden waste service.
Before being bagged, it is composted for 12 weeks using open windrows, during which it is screened, shredded and matured.
One of the stages is sanitisation, when it's kept at a high temperature between 65C and 80C for at least a week to kill weeds, seeds and pathogens.
You can also buy re3grow compost at the re3 recycling centres in Longshot Lane, Bracknell and Island Road, Reading.
If you think they would be helpful, consider subscribing for our garden waste collections service.
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