Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

what bags to put in recycling

Hey,

Me and my flatmates are having a bit of a discussion around recycling bags. We used to think we had to put our recycling into clear bags but they are really hard to get by in Haringey and I'm not convinced that that is even necessary. What kind of bags do other people put in their recyclables?

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Permalink Reply by Bethany Burrow Atherton on April 21, 2018 at 15:54

We just put it in the recycling wheelie bin with no bag. If you're recycling properly, it should all be clean and dry, so there shouldn't be any need (either from your or the binmen's perspective) to put it in a bag. We've never had issues with our bin being collected.

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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on April 21, 2018 at 16:36

Same here. Dry goods go straight in the big green bin, food waste in the small caddy in a compostable bag

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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on April 21, 2018 at 17:23

We were also having discussion about the specifics of recycling. So I phoned Veolia who answered within a couple of rings. A patient and pleasant woman advised me and also looked up Haringey's website. (I'd tried myself but failed to find the information.)

Great. A chat with a real person who knows their stuff!
More humans "by default" please.

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Permalink Reply by Hugh on April 21, 2018 at 20:04

If you use one of the the small food waste bins for the kitchen, Sainsbury’s sell the recyclable bag liners for those. We use those and then dump those into the larger food waste bin in the garden. I’m sure you can dump the food straight into either bin, but they’ll get a lot smellier a lot more quickly if you don’t use bags.

Haringey’s advice is that you can use bags for your food waste.

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Permalink Reply by JoeW on April 21, 2018 at 20:12

I think any plastic bag is fine as long as it isn't tied up. The plastic bag itself is recycled isn't it?

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Permalink Reply by Hugh on April 21, 2018 at 22:05

I think it is Joe. It's composted, hence it's being compostable. I can't see them emptying all he bags really, tied or not. I fact the page I linked to says "If you use a liner or bag that does not show this logo* then your food waste will not be collected".

*the European Bioplastics logo

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Permalink Reply by JoeW on April 21, 2018 at 22:45

We may be talking about different things, Hugh.

Food waste can go into compostable bags which can be tied up - as the whole thing is composted.

Other recycling can go in loose, or into any plastic bag (because the plastic itself is recycled), provided the bag isn't tied up - as the whole thing needs to be sorted later for recycling.

I think some councils require other recycling to go in a clear plastic bag, presumably so the binmen can see there is nothing obviously non-recyclable in it. Haringey doesn't.

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Permalink Reply by Hugh on April 21, 2018 at 23:43

Thanks. Yes I think we were.

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Permalink Reply by Maddy on April 28, 2018 at 11:55

I've had some post-party recycling refused because it was in black bin liners, so I'm not sure it's correct that you can use 'any' plastic bags. Sainsbury's sell some quite good large recylceable plastic bin liners for this.