This page collects together places we’ve discovered you can take things that are broken or finished with for reuse, repair or recycle. (But don’t forget the first “R” – reduce in the first place!)

Top for recycling: the District Council page on how to recycle all kinds of things. It’s called “What goes in which bin” but it’s much more than that – not just explaining what you can and can’t put in our green and blue bins (which take more than you might expect – especially plastic) but also where to take things you can’t recycle on the doorstep. Another really useful website is recyclenow which identifies the nearest place you can recycle something depending on where you are in the country.

Top for repair: local Repair Cafes (including our own Oakington & Westwick Repair Cafe.) The ifixit website has step-by-step instructions for repairing a huge range of appliances, as well as spare parts and community advice. They also score products for repairability – worth checking here before you choose to buy.

Appliances	For repairing appliances of all types: https://www.ifixit.com/
Blister packs (for pills and tablets)	You can take small quantities to Superdrug in Cambridge.
Blue paper towel roll	Put in green bin. If put in with paper for recycling it contaminates it.
Bottle tops	Because they are small they should be screwed back onto bottles (squash plastic bottle first) before recycling. However beer bottle tops (levered off with a bottle opener) can be recycled loose in blue bins as they are easy to sort with magnets.
Bread bags – and other plastic bags/wrappers which don’t have a foil lining but which may have the black “Can’t be recycled” logo on	They have this logo because in many parts of the country you can’t put them in council bins, but we can put in our blue bins – so long as there isn’t a foil lining – for those see “Crisp packets” below. There is more clarification on the Council’s webpage about plastic recycling.
Bubble wrap	Can go in the blue bin but Emmaus can also apparently make use of it for their online sales – you could ask other charity shops.
Candles	Take new or part-used candles to Emmaus to be used in Ukraine.
Cereal packet inner bags	Can go in blue bin. (Same as for bread bags.)
Cling film	Try to avoid, but clean cling film can go in the blue bin for recycling/incineration.
Clothes	Oxfamonline has some instructions for how to repair clothes. Be wary about which clothing banks/collections you use – sometimes unusable clothes end up dumped on beaches etc in other countries. Oxfam, the Salvation Army and Cancer Research are among shops which ensure this does not happen.
Coffee cups	Apart from a few places (eg Costa) these can’t be recycled – they say compostable but our green bins can’t take them as they compost too slowly. Solution is a reusable coffee cup.
Coffee pods/capsules	Can be taken to Milton recycling centre (or use refillable metal capsules or choose a coffee machine which doesn’t need them)
Compostable “plastic”	Put in black bin – not blue (contaminates the other plastic) or green (does not compost fast enough.) Recyclable plastic can be a better choice.
Contact lenses and containers	Specsavers at Bar Hill take any brand of contact lenses and their plastic packaging. Or take to Boots in Cambridge.
Crisp packets, biscuit wrappers, pet food pouches and other scrunchable plastics with a foil lining	If it’s got a shiny foil layer you can’t put it in the blue bin, but some supermarkets including Tesco in Bar Hill and Co-op in Cottenham have collection boxes instore.
Glasses (for eyes), glasses cases	Can take to Specsavers in Bar Hill.
Marigold rubber gloves	Grey recycling box in Oakington Village Shop
Pet food pouches	See “crisp packets”
Pringle tubes	New pringle packets can now be recycled normally in the blue bin.
Razors	Unfortunately the Terracycle scheme for these has closed so they can’t be recycled 😦
Textiles	Textiles other than reusable clothes, such as clothes beyond reuse, old duvets and pillows, can be taken to Dunelm.
Toothpaste (or similar) tubes	Many of these can now be recycled in the blue bin (wash first) – cut in half and if no foil lining they can go in blue bin. (Look out for HDPE 2 recycling logo.)

Please let us know of any updates, inaccuracies or additions to this list.