Amber Valley Borough Council are committed to encouraging residents to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle their rubbish wherever possible. We have in place a recycling scheme that includes provision of kerbside collections and bring banks.

View our diagram here on what happens to your recycling

Paper Recycling

You can recycle your paper either through the kerbside collection, or though one of the local recycling banks within the borough of Amber Valley.

In 2010/2011 we collected over 2,883 tonnes of paper for recycling from kerbside collections. 

We are happy to collect all the paper you put out for recycling. Please place it out on your scheduled collection day in your blue bag by 6.30a.m. (extra paper can be put in open, clear bags) ready for collection.

In your blue bag we will collect:

• Newspapers
• Magazines
• Junk mail
• Catalogues
• White directories
• Shredded paper
• Paperback books

Yellow pages and hardback books can be recycled, but must be put in your ORANGE bag.

We will not collect: 

• Musical greetings cards
• Confidential papers (unless shredded)
• Envelopes (unless the plastic window has been removed)

What happens to the paper you recycle?

Once the paper has been collected by Veolia Environmental Services it is taken to Aylesford  where it is recycled into newsprint. 

Cardboard Recycling

You can recycle your cardboard at the kerbside by using your orange bag. Due to the collection of cardboard un-compacted and the limited space on the collection vehicles, we can only take one orange bag full of cardboard on each collection. However if you have extra cardboard, you can take it to your local recycling site or to your nearest Household Waste and Recycling Centre. 

In 2010/2011 we collected over 1,878 tonnes of card for recycling from kerbside collections. 

In your orange bag we will collect: 

• Yellow pages
• Corrugated cardboard
• Card packaging e.g. cereal boxes, toilet rolls, greetings cards
• Hardback books

We will not collect:  

• Musical greetings cards
• Hard rolls
• Liquid juice/milk cartons e.g. TetraPak (these can be recycled at bottle banks at the recycling sites with your plastic)

What happens to the cardboard you recycle?

Cardboard collected from the kerbside is currently sent to Smurfit Kappa SSK to be recycled.  Cardboard recycled at bring bank sites is collected by  Smurfitt Kappa to be recycled in the UK.  

Tin and Can Recycling

You can recycle your tins and cans at the kerbside by washing them and putting them in the orange box to be collected.

In your orange box we will collect: 

• Food tins
• Drinks cans
• Empty aerosol cans
• Cake and biscuit tins
• Aluminium foil and clean take-away containers
• Metal bottle tops and lids

We will not collect:  

• Household tins e.g. oil or paint

Tins of oil and paint can be disposed of at the Civic Amenity Site at Taylor Lane, Loscoe.  

In 2010/2011 we collected over 718 tonnes of aliminium / tin cans and foil for recycling from kerbside collections. 

Glass Recycling

You can recycle your glass bottles and jars through the kerbside collection. Please put all your glass into your yellow box. If you have extra glass to recycle, you may put it in a clear bag and put it next to your recycling containers on your scheduled collection day.

In your yellow box we will collect: 

• All bottles and jars of any colour

(If you decide to take your glass to the bottle bank, blue glass can go into the banks for green glass.)

We will not collect: 

• Drinks glasses
• Mirrors
• Glass windowpanes
• Light bulbs
• Glass spectacles
• Pyrex dishes

What happens to the glass you recycle?

Glass is reprocessed / recycled into a number of different products with a wide range of uses for example it may be recycled into new bottles and jars, a coarse aggregate substitute for use in road construction, concrete product manufacture or as trench backfill.

In 2010/2011 we collected over 2,785 tonnes of glass for recycling from kerbside collections. 

Contamination

It is important that you place the right recyclable materials in the right container in order to avoid contamination.  If there is contamination in with the recyclable materials, this will result in the collection vehicles total load of recycled materials being rejected due to poor quality and sent to landfill.

Textile Recycling

Textile collection is not part of the kerbside recycling collection scheme in Amber Valley, but if you have old clothes, shoes or other textiles that you no longer want or need,  there are a number of places where you can take your unwanted textiles.

• You can take clean unwanted clothes and shoes to your local charity shop.
• Alternatively you can take them to one of the many recycling sites throughout the Borough where they will be recycled/re-used through charitable organisations.

The following items are accepted in textile recycling banks.

What we will collect:

• Unwanted clothing
• Curtains
• Bed Sheets
• Handbags
• Blankets
• Belts
• Shoes

What we will not collect:

• Soiled clothing
• Wet clothing
• Duvets
• Pillows

What happens to the textiles you recycle?

Textiles that are in good condition will first be sorted into different categories.

Dependant on where you take your textiles for recycling, for example, if it was a charity shop or if you put them into a bank provided by a charity that has a chain of shops in the UK, the textiles will probably be cleaned and sold through that shop.

If you placed your textiles in a bank for a charitable organisation that does not have a chain of shops in the UK, the clothes will probably be sorted into the different categories for export. The lighter clothes will be sorted into bales to be sent to hotter countries such as Africa and Asia. The heavier clothing will be sorted for baling and export to end destinations such as Eastern Europe.

Shoe Recycling

Please note that even if you have just one shoe it is still worth placing it into the recycling banks. Odd shoes can be sent to countries to be used by bomb victims that are amputees.

Plastic & Tetrapak Recycling

Plastic bottles and TetraPak cartons ( i.e. waxed paper cartons such as milk and fruit juice cartons) are not part of the kerbside recycling collection scheme in Amber Valley.

Why isn't plastic collected for recycling at the kerbside?

Under the existing waste contract Amber Valley Borough Council does not have access to a MRF (Materials Recycling Facility) where waste that is collected co-mingled (in one bin) can be sorted into constituent parts.  For other neighbouring councils this facility is available therefore they are able to collect plastic co-mingled with other waste in one bin and take it to one of these facilities for sorting.

Instead Amber Valley Borough Council in accordance with the contractual agreement it signed in 2005, collects materials that are already sorted and separated at the kerbside.  Once collected, recyclable materials are kept separately on the kerbside vehicles in the specially designated compartments for cans, glass, paper and card.

Plastic containers are by their very nature a light bulky material. Therefore, it would be unsuitable to use compartments within the existing fleet of recycling vehicles to collect un-compacted plastic.

Consequently if plastic containers were to be collected on the kerbside it would mean that the Council would have to raise additional revenue to pay for extra vehicles just to collect the plastic as well as purchasing additional containers to collect the plastics in.

In the light of this type of collection arrangement it would not currently be cost effective or environmentally sustainable to put this system in place.
 
Therefore until the waste contract is renewed plastic banks have been provided at 16 of the main recycling sites for residents to recycle the plastic containers and Tetrapaks.

 What you can put in the plastic recycling banks

The following items can be put into plastic recycling banks around Amber Valley:

Please wash out your plastic bottles, remove the lids and squash them before putting them in the banks, this will allow more recycling to be collected.

What happens to the plastic you recycle?

The plastic bottle banks are emptied and then the material is taken to a reprocessing plant. From here the plastic is turned into anything from fleece jackets to garden furniture or pipes. The cartons you recycle will become more cartons or may become plasterboard liners.  See the 'recycle-cycle' for more information on what happens to your recycling

Incineration

Only clinical waste is sent for incineration from Amber Valley. All other non-recyclable waste is sent to landfill. For more information on how we dispose of waste in the borough, see Derbyshire County Council's website.