Frequently asked questions

Duty of care is the duty to ensure that any waste you produce, import, transport, store, treat or dispose of, is handled safely and within the law.

As a householder, you are required to take reasonable steps to check that people removing waste from your premises are authorised to do so. If your waste is illegally disposed of you could be held responsible and fined up to £5,000 on conviction in the Magistrates Court, or given an unlimited fine if convicted in the Crown Court.

Reasonable steps to take:

• Ask the waste carrier to provide you with their full address and telephone number.
• Ask to see their waste carriers licence issued by the Environment Agency.
• Contact the Environment Agency directly on 08708 506 506 and ask for a free instant waste carrier validation check, or check the Environment Agency website.

If you produce or deal with waste that has certain hazardous properties, you will also have to comply with the hazardous waste regulations. For more information please see the hazardous waste pages.

If you have books that you no longer want but are in good condition you can donate them to charity shops.

If they are not in a good enough condition to be reused, you can take them to your nearest recycling centre or book bank.  Book banks are found at various recycling points across the county and are the responsibility of district and city councils.

To find out where your nearest book bank is, you can check the bank locator.

Donation
You can donate your car to charity. Giveacar will collect your car at no cost to you, then sell it or scrap it and donate the profit to a charity of your choice.

Authorised Treatment Facilities (ATFs)

The End of Life Vehicle Directive enables owners to dispose of their vehicles free of charge at ATFs.  You can find a list of ATFs on the Environment Agency's website.

Recycling centres
Parts from your own car can be accepted at recycling centres. However you are advised to contact your site in advance to confirm whether they will be able to accept your waste.

• Recycling centres are not licensed for the disposal of whole motor vehicles.
• The only fluid from a motor vehicle that recycling centres are licensed to accept is engine oil.
• Any vehicle parts that contain fluids are not accepted.
• Vehicles tyres are not accepted.
• The site manager's decision is final.
• The "Disposal of vehicle parts policy" applies.
   

Private contractors
Contact salvage merchants to find out if they deal with scrap cars.  

If you are fitting the carpet yourself, your old carpet can be taken to your nearest recycling centre.  If you are having a carpet professionally fitted, you cannot take the old carpet to a recycling centre.  The fee you pay should include a cost for disposal by the contractor.  Always ask before you commit.

Carpet recycling usually involves shredding the materials for use in products such as sports items.

If your old carpet is still in good condition, there are plenty of ways to reuse it before taking it to be recycled.  Some charities in the area accept old carpets in good clean condition to give to households in need.  If the carpet is not in a good enough condition to donate there are plenty of other ways to reuse it.

For example:

• For composting, carpet makes good mulch.
• If only part of the carpet is ruined, you could use the decent parts to make rugs and runners for around the house.
• It can be donated to local animal shelters for cat houses.
• It can be used to make a cat scratching post.
• Cut-up carpets can be used as foot mats or lining in the boot of your car.
• Cut out small circles and place under the feet of heavy furniture.

Recycling centres accept CDs, CD-ROMS, DVDs, video tapes (and their plastic cases) video games, board games and books in their media banks. 

Books are sent to North African countries for educational use, and CDs, DVDs, video tapes and games are sold where possible.  Any materials not suitable for reuse are shredded in the UK, books being recycled into new paper, and plastics from the CDs, DVDs, video tapes and their cases recycled into new items.

If they are in good condition you can donate these items to charity.  Please don't donate the free CDs from newspapers and magazines  as these are not suitable for resale. 

There are many ways to reuse CDs in crafts or the garden, search online for inspiration.

Clothes

• You can take clean clothes to a recycling centre or some recycling points. Please put them in a carrier bag to keep them clean and dry before putting them in the recycling banks provided. Good quality items can be sold in charity shops in the UK, or sent abroad where there is a need. Damaged or shabby items are made into rags for industrial use, or shredded to be used as furniture padding.
• You can take clean items straight to your local charity shop.  Even if they are not suitable for sale in the shop charities can make money from selling them to rag merchants.  
• There are several ways to sell on or swap your clothes.  You could also save yourself money by altering them into something else!

Shoes

• Shoes and trainers in good condition can be taken to charity shops, recycling centres or some recycling points (tie them together or put pairs into bags before dropping them into the recycling banks).
• Paired shoes in a significantly worn condition can also be dropped into the banks at recycling centres or recycling points as they can be repaired.
• Trainers which are beyond repair can be taken to collection depots to be recycled into athletics surfaces - the nearest is in Braintree.

Other textiles

• Fabrics such as towels or tea towels can be treated like clothes.
• Heavier items such as duvets, curtains or rugs can be donated to charity shops or resold.
• Carpets in good condition can be donated to Freecycle, or to your local furniture reuse group. Those in bad condition might be useful to a nearby allotment or gardening group as a weed suppressing membrane.  They can be taken to a recycling centre.

You could

• drop off your computer at a recycling centre
• give it to a charity
• give it away via a recycling organisation
• arrange for a private contractor to take it 
  

Data removal

Please ensure that all data has been removed from the hard drive before leaving your computer at a recycling centre.  The Council does not provide a data removal service and will not accept responsibility for the destruction of or use of any data left on hard drives.

The most effective way to ensure your data is irretrievable is to take out the hard drive and smash it into small pieces (which can be taken to a recycling centre).

An alternative is to use reliable data-erasing software, some of which is available for free on the internet.

Recycling centres collect cooking oil.  Oil should not be poured down the drain as it can cause expensive blockages, pollute watercourses and damage vegetation and wildlife.

Cooking oil from recycling centres is used to generate green electricity.

The cooking oil recycling service is only available to domestic users. Businesses should have their oil collected by a registered contractor. 

225,000 tonnes of used cooking oil is thrown away every year in the UK. If this was all collected and refined, the resulting biofuel could generate more than 13,000-megawatt hours of electricity.

Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) is marked with a crossed out wheelie bin symbol to show that it should be recycled.  Any WEEE from your household can be taken to one of the Council's recycling centres and placed in the designated WEEE area. Some distributors will allow you to return old equipment free of charge when you buy a replacement product.

WEEE can be divided into the following categories:

• A - Large household appliances (cookers, washing machines, dryers)
• B - Cooling appliances (fridges/freezers)
• C - Display equipment containing cathode ray tubes (TVs, computer monitors)
• D - Gas discharge lamps (fluorescent tubes, low-energy light bulbs)
• E - All other WEEE (small mixed WEEE) 

It is particularly important to recycle categories B, C and D as they contain hazardous components.  For example, category D contains mercury which is extremely dangerous to water supplies and aquatic life.

Recycling centres accept energy-saving lightbulbs, old-fashioned lightbulbs and fluorescent tubes.

Compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) - also known as energy-saving bulbs - contain very small quantities of mercury. Due to the hazardous nature of this material, CFLs should be disposed of carefully.  In the event of a broken CFL, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) advises the following:

If you are re-insulating your loft and doing the work yourself, your old loft insulation can be taken to a recycling centres.  Please make sure the material is wrapped up and sealed securely.

Glass wool insulation is not recyclable or biodegradable.  Please speak to a recycling centre operative when arriving on site and they will advise you where to deposit it.

If you pay a contractor to insulate your loft for you, you cannot take the insulation to a recycling centre.  The fee you pay should include a cost for disposal by the contractor.  

When insulating your loft it is worth thinking about the environmental impacts the material brings when it comes to the end of its life.  Mineral wool, an increasingly popular insulation material, is recyclable.  Environmentally friendly materials like sheep's wool, board from compressed wood waste, material made from recycled scrap cotton, flax, rolls or slabs of hemp and cellulose/paper can also be used for insulating your loft.

Reuse it

For example

• Use ice-cream tubs as lunch boxes.
• Use takeaway containers to store food in fridges or freezers.
• Use meat trays as mini-greenhouses for seed sowing.
• Reuse plastic shopping bags (better still use a cotton shopping bag).  

Recycle it

• Bluntisham, Witchford, Milton and St Neots Recycling Centres have plastic bottle* recycling facilities.
• Some district councils collect plastic bottles, some additional plastics* through kerbside recycling schemes. Please see your district council's website for more information on what is collected in your area.
• Other district councils provide plastic bottle* banks at some of the recycling points within their districts. You can find your nearest recycling point and what it accepts at www.recycle-more.co.uk.
• Some supermarkets collect carrier bags for recycling.

*Please dispose of lids from plastic bottles in your non-recycled rubbish, unless your district council is able to collect them.

What about recycling plastic which isn't from bottles?

Plastic bottles are usually made from a few types of easily recyclable plastic for which there is a high demand. Other products can be made from a huge variety of plastics which can be difficult and expensive for commercial operators to recycle. At present most councils are unable to provide any facility to recycle non-bottle plastic.

You can access general information on plastic recycling at www.recoup.org.

Reduce it

• Use lunch boxes and reusable sandwich bags rather than clingfilm.
• Write to supermarkets and manufacturers asking them to package household products in reusable containers.
• Don't buy items with excess packaging.
• Buy goods made from recycled plastic.

If you don't want to clean it yourself, there are several companies in Cambridgeshire who provide wheelie bin cleaning. 

To do it yourself, lay it on its side and use hot water and a general disinfectant with a mop or broom, and pour the dirty water down the drain. 

To prevent odour, flies and pests, always keep the bin lid down.  It helps to tie up bin bags before putting them in the bin, and to wrap kitchen waste in newspaper before putting it in the composting bin.  Recyclable items should be rinsed to remove food residues before putting them in the recycling bin.

For safety reasons, please avoid crushing or piercing aerosol cans, and only recycle them once they are empty.

Kerbside recycling
Aerosol cans can be recycled through your kerbside recycling scheme collections.

Recycling centres
You can recycle aerosol cans by putting them in the scrap metal skips at all of the Cambridgeshire recycling centres.

Recycling points
Aerosols can be recycled in the mini recycling banks at supermarkets and other recycling points in:

• Cambridge City
• East Cambridgeshire
• South Cambridgeshire

Any items of household waste that are too big to fit into your kerbside collection, such as old fridges, sofas, mattresses or wardrobes can be disposed of using:

Recycling centres

Bulky items from your own household can be taken to any of the recycling centres in Cambridgeshire free of charge. Please note that all items are accepted at the manager's discretion and there are restrictions on the type and size of vehicles allowed into the sites.

District council bulky collection service

If you are unable to transport your items, your district council provides a bulky item collection service. For their charges please see your district council's website.

Some local charities and community groups collect resaleable items free of charge. 

Give away, swap or sell your items. 

Private contractors can be paid to remove your waste.

Japanese knotweed (Fallopia Japonica) is an introduced weed which is rapidly colonising riverbanks and wasteland areas.  It grows to a height of about 3 metres in the midsummer with bamboo-like stems, and produces large masses of white flowers.  It is particulary intrusive as cut or broken stems lying on damp soil can root and form new plants.  It has been known to grow through cracks in rocks, concrete and tarmac.

When taking down this plant do not flail mow.  You should ensure that the the plant is cut with simple blades with no fragments.  It would be beneficial to ensure that it has been treated with an appropriate chemical beforehand.

All cutting and shoots should be burnt to avoid further infestation.

• Do not take this to a recycling centre.
• Do not place it in the compost waste collected by your district council.
• Do not try to compost this at home.

Comprehensive advice can be accessed from the Directgov website.

Wrapping paper can be tricky to recycle.  This is because a lot of wrapping paper does not contain much paper at all - it often contains foil and plastic which cannot be recycled.

Using pure paper gift wrap (as opposed to foil) is much better for the environment as it can be recycled at paper banks throughout the county.  Please ensure however that sticky tape, ribbons and labels are removed first.  Wrapping paper with metallic or plastic elements is difficult to recycle, so reuse it instead.

Recycling centres do not accept wrapping paper for recycling. 

Here are summary and contact details for your area if you are unsure how to dispose of your wrapping paper:

Cambridge City Council
01223 457000

East Cambridgeshire District Council
01353 665555

Fenland District Council
01354 654321

Huntingdonshire District Council
01480 388388

South Cambridgeshire District Council
08450 450500

You can also buy recycled wrapping paper from many online stores which is a lot more environmentally friendly.