Brighton and Hove City Council promote refuse and recycling to residents and businesses throughout the city, with collection schemes in place for both. These schemes come under their ‘City Clean’ program, which along with refuse and recycling programs, also tackles issues like food waste and graffiti, and raises awareness of ‘green products’ available to buy, such as can crushers, composters, and ‘bags for life’.
In terms of refuse collections, the council send out rubbish trucks 5 days a week to collect across the city, with additional schedules in place for bank holidays. Depending on where you live, the council will provide traditional wheelie bins, communal bins (for blocks of flats), refuse sacks, or bin-velopes, which are special boxes that small terraced houses can use to store rubbish for collection.
In line with national policies, the city of Brighton and Hove also actively promote recycling, and run several different projects to collect/re-use/recycle waste, which cover some 98% of the city. Residents benefit from a multi-material ‘kerbside’ recycling scheme, either weekly or fortnightly. This covers items such as plastic bottles, glass, newspapers, cards, junk mail, cardboard, household batteries, shredded paper, and drinks cans. Items not included in this recycling system include tissue paper, cling film, crisp packets, textiles, paint cans, and plastic ready meal dishes.
For recycling on a larger scale, residents can visit the Household Waste Recycling Sites or Tips, which are located off Wilson Avenue in Brighton, and off Old Shoreham Road in Hove. Hours vary between the two sites, but there’s access during weekdays and weekends, and in the case of the Brighton site, Bank Holidays as well. Both sites accept a vast variety of items, which includes, but isn’t limited to: energy saving light bulbs, fridges and freezers, small quantities of building rubble from houses, TV’s, household appliances, and engine oil. Dumping your waste at these sites is free, although if you’re unable to transport bulky items to the recycling site yourselves, the council will collect them for a small charge.
Council websites and recycling literature will also provide details of the large number of recycling points throughout the city, for items like glass bottles, newspaper, textiles, shoes, garden waste and mobile phones, while there are also a number of charities and private recycling organisations that accept material for either recycling or re-use/re-selling. These include Computer Aid International, which distributes old computers to developing countries, CLIC Sargent, which recycles print cartridges and mobile phones, the Wood Recycling Project, and Emmaus, which sells unwanted items through a Bric-A-Brac Store.
All of these systems have been introduced by City Clean, to ensure that there are ample opportunities for all residents and businesses to dispose of their rubbish, or re-cycle their unwanted items/waste. With promotional campaigns in force, and plenty of information available from City Clean or the council websites, it’s easy to find out what you can do to make sure your rubbish and recycling ends up in the right place. With many non-council run organisations actively looking for, and making use of unwanted items, it’s easy to see why Brighton and Hove hate waste!
