We can recycle most items from our households – the guide below will help you keep things out of landfill. However, recycling is only part of the solution. We should try to work to the following ‘R’s as well:
- Reduce – avoid buying products with unnecessary packaging, e.g. buy fresh and local where possible.
- Refuse – don’t accept unnecessary packaging from retailers.
- Refill – use your own containers, water bottles and coffee cups reusable water bottles.
- Reuse – taking your own bag when shopping to avoid taking plastic bags.
- Repair – give new life to items which you would otherwise send to landfill.
- Re-purpose – find a new way of using items which have fulfilled their original purpose.
- Rot – Make your own compost, or if you can’t do this put in a green garden waste bin or take to a Household Waste Recycling centre.
If you can’t find an item in our list below, this website is brilliant. – https://www.recyclenow.com/what-to-do-with
How and Where to Recycle
| What? | Where To Recycle and What Happens To It? | ||
| Batteries | Co-op in Hurst Kerbside collection Hassocks Hardware Tesco Superstore – Burgess Hill B&Q – Burgess Hill You can recycle your household batteries as part of kerbside rubbish (black lidded bin) collections every two weeks. Put them in a small plastic bag next to your bin. Each shop who sells batteries has a box to collect and send off free to have their raw materials recovered. | ||
| Contact Lenses and Glasses | Hassocks Eyecare They are sent off to be recycled by the manufacturers. Specsavers Burgess Hill Lenses and glasses. Oli, Burgess Hill Contact lenses Hurst I Wear Glasses can be donated here. | ||
| Coffee Pods | If you use Nespresso coffee pods, you can sign up to their free Podback recycling scheme. They send you bags to fill with your used aluminium pods which you return to them for free once the bag is full. Alternatively, you can use compostable coffee pods such as these from Roar & Gill. | ||
| Corks | Recorked UK Henfield – outside Katie’s Nuttery This is a charity that collects and recycles natural corks (not plastic) from wine bottles. Check here for local collection points: https://recorkeduk.org/pages/collection-partners-map] Our nearest drop off point is Albourne Estate Vineyard. You can also drop corks off to Sustainable Henfield’s collection point outside Katie’s Nuttery on the High St. | ||
| Cosmetic packaging | Boots, Burgess Hill and Haywards Heath This includes plastic tubes, face wipe packets, cosmetic packaging such as compacts, mascara tubes, lipsticks, lip gloss and lip balm containers. | ||
| Crisp packets, confectionery wrappers, cake and biscuit packets | Hurst Rethink Soft Plastic Bins outside Charity Shop. Co-op Soft Plastics Recycling bin – next to tills Tesco Burgess Hill Plastics Recycling bin – inside entrance. | ||
| Electrical and Electronic items | Household Waste Recycling Centre Kerbside refuse collection B&Q – Burgess Hill This is equipment powered by electricity or battery. It must not be put in your household bin as items often have hazardous chemicals in them. Mid Sussex are now collecting small electrical appliances and household batteries as part of kerbside rubbish (black lidded bin) collections every two weeks. Items should be left out with your scheduled rubbish collection, in a standard plastic bag (no larger than 35 x 40cm and not in black bin bags) and left next to your black lidded rubbish bin on your scheduled collection day. https://www.midsussex.gov.uk/waste-recycling/small-electrical-collections/ (take batteries out of electrical goods). Alternatively, B&Q have a collection box near the exit. | ||
| Hearing Aids | The Lions Club Lions Clubs collect unwanted, or broken, analogue and digital hearing aids and audiological equipment from individuals, audiologists, hearing retail outlets, and hospitals. Since May 2015, Lions have collected almost 90,000 hearing aids and ancillary items. Details here: https://lionsclubs.co/MemberArea/knowledge/deaf-awareness/ | ||
| Inhalers | Lloyds Pharmacy, Hurst High Street NHS England and GSK fund the disposal of inhalers to reduce greenhouse gases given off by the propellant. 73 million inhalers are used in the UK annually, if all were returned for incineration it would save the equivalent of 500,000 tonnes of CO2. | ||
Light Bulbs | Tesco Superstore – Burgess Hill Household Waste Recycling Centre B&Q Burgess Hill Low energy light bulbs, LED bulbs and fluorescent tubes are hazardous waste as they contain mercury and should not be put in your household waste bin. Other light bulbs can be put in your bin. Alternatively, B&Q have a collection box near the exit. | ||
| Mobile Phones and Gadgets | You can see if you can get some money for them using the Compare and recycle comparison website. https://www.compareandrecycle.co.uk/ Alternatively, send the to Recycling your IT (Stanstead) https://www.recyclingyourit.co.uk/profit-sharing-scheme/ Prices vary depending on the size of your collection / less than 20 items, deliver them for free to our distribution centre in Central Essex. PDSA – provide veterinary care for the sick and injured pets https://www.pdsa.org.uk/get-involved/fundraise/recycle-for-pdsa | ||
| Milk Bottle Tops and other plastic bottle tops | We no longer recycle these. You can now put them in your household recycling, as long as they’re attached to the original container and this is squashed flat. | ||
| Postage Stamps, coins and medals | You can collect these and send to the following charities: PDSA – provide veterinary care for the sick and injured pets https://www.pdsa.org.uk/get-involved/fundraise/recycle-for-pdsa RSPB – Stamp out albatross deaths https://www.rspb.org.uk/join-and-donate/other-ways-to-help/stamp-out-albatross-deaths/ old collection of stamps, coins or medals | ||
| Plastic Food Packaging | Co-op in Hurst Tesco Superstore – Burgess Hill Soft plastics include most food packaging including film, pet food packaging. Most supermarkets now collect these and they are made into plastic pellets to make other plastic products. Please note that Tesco and Sainsburys export their plastic recycling to Poland for processing. | ||
| Printer Cartridges | Tesco Superstore Burgess Hill There is a recycling station at the far end of the store. You can also send off printer cartridges to charities and raise funds: Recycle for charity – Ink cartridges only (Littlehampton) https://www.recycle4charity.co.uk/AboutUs Collection boxes and free postage (Min. 15 cartridges) Refund amount varies daily in line with market fluctuations The recycling factory (Lincolnshire) https://www.therecyclingfactory.com/charity | ||
| Pens and writing instruments | You can drop these off at the main entrance of St Lawrence CoE School to the Hurst Rethink Terracycle collection. | ||
| Pesticides and Weed killers | Household Waste Recycling Centre Insects in the UK have been in decline for many years and where possible we should avoid the use of pesticides as they are non-discriminate in what they kill. Many of these products should not be used on food plants and can be hazardous if instructions are not followed. Do take any out of date or potentially hazardous items to the Household Waste Recycling centre and use safer alternatives in the future. | ||
| Sleeping bags and rucksacks | Sussex Homeless Support based in Hove collect these items as well warm clothes in the winter. Details here: https://www.sussexhomelesssupport.co.uk/donate/ | ||
| Textiles | If clothes are wearable, please take them to a local charity shop. If not you can use the following: Sell clothes by the kilo with Sussex textile recycling http://www.sussextextilerecycling.co.uk/ Brighton drop off – 40p per kilo (cash on drop off) Bags of support, Sussex based charity http://www.bagsofsupport.co.uk/ Quick cash for clothes https://quickcashforclothes.co.uk/ You get paid £5 / 10kg | ||
| Toothpaste and Toothbrushes | Boots in Burgess Hill or Brighton. | ||
| Water Filters | Tesco Superstore – Burgess Hill You can recycle used water filters from Brita jugs or similar in Tesco in Burgess Hill. There is a recycling station at the far end of the store. |
Below is a list of some of the current charity collection points:
| What | Where | Who They support |
| Books, Shoes & Textiles | Trinity Road Car Park Hurstpierpoint Fire station Trinity Road Car Park and Hurstpierpoint Fire Station on Cuckfield road both have clothes banks for clothing and shoes, Trinity Road also has a book bank. | Salvation Army, British Heart Foundation, |
| Bra recycling | Hurst Parish council office, Village Centre The bra banks accept bras in any condition and raise vital funds for pioneering breast cancer research and small businesses in Africa. | Against Breast Cancer |
If you know of any other recycling points or if you know of anyone interesting in hosting a collection box please do let us know hurstrethink@gmail.com