Recycling aluminium

Which container?

Aluminium cans can be collected in your red box with your plastic and steel, as part of our kerbside collection service.

If you have extra recycling that won't fit in the red box please request another container. Please do not leave recycling in plastic carrier bags or black bin bags for health & safety, and operational reasons.

If you share communal bins, aluminium is collected in the same bin as your plastic.

What aluminium items can I recycle?

Yes please...

• Food and drinks cans
• Aerosol cans
• Clean foil e.g. takeaway dishes, ready meal dishes, pie dishes, some yoghurt lids and cooking/wrapping aluminium foil

No thanks...

• Crisp packets
• Cat or dog food pouches

Don't forget to squash the aluminium cans to fit more in your red box or bin - fastening the lid will help prevent your recycling from escaping. You can request new red box lids here.

To test if something is made from aluminium you can do the 'scrunch test' - aluminium foil will not spring back when scrunched up.

Plastic coated foil-like materials - like crisp packets and some chocolate wrappers - will spring back. You can't currently recycle these in your red box but the council offices are a collection point for the recycling of crisp packets. Please bring empty crisp packets into reception where you can put them in a designated bin.

We can’t accept cat/dog food pouches in the red box, but a company called TerraCycle can recycle them. Find out more about this scheme and where your closest drop off location is here.

Where does it go?

Find out what happens to your aluminium and what it is recycled into.

For more on recycling aluminium, visit the Aluminium Packaging Recycling Organisation (ALUPRO) website to find out more.