According to Recyclenow.com, recycling in the UK saves around 10-15 million tonnes of carbon emissions each year; the equivalent of taking 3.5 million cars off the road.
However, according to Government statistics, the UK’s household recycling rate was only 0.1% higher in 2021 than in 2015, at 44.6%. And Eurostats statistics show 11 European countries with a higher recycling rate, with Germany leading the way on 69.2%.
Knowing how and where to dispose of your waste items is key to ensuring the carbon footprint related to processing your waste is as low as possible.
Household Recycling
Wokingham Borough Council is responsible for processing household waste for Woodley residents.
Dry recycling is placed in green recycling bags, whilst food waste is placed in a black food waste caddy.
Wokingham provide helpful information on what you can and cannot recycle in green recycling bags and food waste caddies as part of your household waste collection.
Recycling Centres
RE3 is a waste management partnership between Wokingham, Reading and Bracknell Forest. They manage household waste collections in all three areas, along with the local recycling centres and bottle banks (see below).
RE3 provide information on what can be recycled at their centres; including chargeable items, such as construction and demolition waste over a specified amount, and gas bottles.
Glass Banks
For those living in the borough, glass bottles and jars are recycled at Glass Banks.
Glass banks are located at over 130 locations across the borough, and are managed by RE3.
Clothing
Clothing which is no longer wanted can be recycled in a number of ways.
Woodley town centre has a variety of charity shops which welcome clothes donations, including Barnardos, Helen and Douglas House, Sue Ryder, Thames Hospice, and Oxfam.
Clothes donation banks are also dotted around; these can be located using RecycleNow’s Recycling Locator, or are often located near glass banks.
You may also want to consider Upcycling your clothing.
Alternatively, you may look to either sell your clothes online, using sites such as eBay or Vinted, or even give them away, using sites such as Freegle – obviously many alternative sites are available for you to use.
Scrapp
As part of the RE3 waste management partnership, Wokingham Borough Council, Reading Borough Council and Bracknell Forest Borough Council have joined forces with a new start-up company to create a new app.
The Scrapp app explains the ins and outs of recycling in an accesible, engaging and user friendly way. It even provides users with information on how and where you can recycling certain items by scanning their barcode.
Other Items
Many other items, which traditionally cannot be recycled as part of your household waste or at a glass bank, can still be recycled.
RecycleNow’s Recycling Locator can help you find where you can recycling a variety items, including soft plastics, batteries, and food packaging.
Ali’s Recycling for the Local Community is a Terracyle scheme local to Wokingham which aims to raise money for charities by recycling items which cannot be recycled by other methods. Terracycle schemes help recycling products including soft plastics, water softener cartridges, foil balloons, and even rubber gloves.
