Your coloured bins are used as follows:

• Blue bin: recyclable materials
• Black bin: non-recyclable and non-compostable materials
• Green bin: food and garden waste

We include a cut-out-and-keep guide to what goes in which bin in most editions of Cambridge Matters, the magazine we deliver to all residents every three months.

Search our A to Z of what goes in which bin

To recycle batteries, tie them in a small plastic bag and put it on top of your blue, green or black bin. We can recycle small batteries such as AA, AAA, 9V or button-style this way. If we cannot collect them because the container on the lorry is full, put them out again next time.

Blue bins

Put these in your blue bin:

• Paper, including newspapers, magazines and envelopes
• Cardboard including corrugated boxes, greetings cards and thin card packaging
• Cartons, such as Tetra Pak
• Plastic bags (except black bin bags)
• Empty and clean plastic bottles, pots, and trays
• Food and drink tins and cans, including sweet tins
• Empty aerosols
• Wrapping paper (no metallic plastic)
• Clean tinfoil and foil trays
  Empty and clean glass jars and bottles
• Non-metallic plastic packets or wrappers e.g. bread bags, pasta bags

Do not put these in your blue bin:

• Food
• Liquids
• Nappies
• Clothes, textiles or shoes (take to charity shops or clothing banks)
• Expanded polystyrene or Styrofoam
• Foam and sponge
• Non-packaging plastic, including toys, bowls and decorations
• Flat glass or mirrors
• Pyrex
• Kitchen paper and tissues
• Dirty packaging
• Paint tins
• Metallic plastic wrappers e.g. crisp packets
• Black bin bags
• Electrical items

Black bins

Put these in your black bin:

• General household non-recyclable and non-compostable material waste
• Disposable nappies should be put in the black bin

Do not put these in your black bin:

• Empty or full paint tins
• Rubble
• Bricks
• Soil
• Very heavy items
• Electrical items
• Loose ash or dust (please bag)

Green bins

Put these in your green bin:

• Garden waste, such as grass cuttings and leaves
• Untreated wood
• Straw and sawdust
• Food waste, including meat, fish dairy, and peelings
• Used paper tissues
• Cut-up real Christmas trees (lid must close)

Do not put these in your green bin:

• Any plastic
• Plastic bags or sacks, including biodegradable or compostable bags
• Cat or dog waste
• Soil, stones or turf
• Treated wood
• Rubble

We cannot collect extra garden waste.

You can home compost, visit a Household Recycling Centre or apply for an additional green bin if you have extra garden waste.

You can use a kitchen caddy with a paper liner for your kitchen food waste, and empty it into your green bin when full.