Recycling in Kettering – Full Guide & FAQs

Find out which items can go in your black, blue and grey bins here on the North Northants Council website.

• Take a trip to the tip: Check out Opening times & Number of times you can visit recycling centre per 60 days
• Bulky item collection - £30 for 5x items (Pro tip: Consider teaming up with your neighbours to share the cost if they also have bulky items.)
• Reuse Shops (for items in reasonable/good condition only)
• KCU - Kettering Community Unit work with the council to recycle furniture and offer it back to those in the community who need it.

If you know about a recycling or upcycling scheme that is not listed, please email: clerk @ ketteringtowncouncil.gov.uk

• Batteries (supermarkets - inc Co-Op, Aldi, Tesco, Morrisons, Sainsburys)
• Bread bags (supermarkets - inc Co-Op, Tesco, Morrisons, Sainsburys)
• Carpet (Kettering Recycling Centre)
• Clothing & textiles (charity shops for good quality clothes, ASDA, Morrisons, Salvation Army, Tesco)
• Crisp packets (Co-Op, Tesco)
• Coffee pods (some pods are recyclable via Teracycle)
• Colgate toothpaste tubes (Teracycle)
• Contaminated cardboard (compost it/Green Patch)
• Electrical goods - tvs, fridges etc. (see Recycling Bulky Items)
• Metal (Kettering Recycling Centre)
• Nappies (do not recycle, black bin only) Note: if you've not tried reusable cloth nappies, they are a much cheaper and more environmentally friendly option. The Northamptonshire Cloth Nappy Library operates out of Burton Latimer.
• Paint (Kettering Recycling Centre)
• Sweet wrappers (see the label to see if it is recyclable via Teracycle)
• Wood (reuse if possible or give away free on Sharing the Kindness or sharing apps like Olio. Note that painted wood cannot be recycled, but you can take plain wood to the Kettering Recycling Centre)

• Clinical Waste: Sharps must not go in any wheeled bin under any circumstance. You should contact your healthcare provider regarding disposal.

The above list is a work in progress and will be built upon, but we welcome any information you have as a local resident to continue to make this even more useful to locals. Can you share some information or resources we haven't mentioned for recycling or upcycling materials?
Email: clerk@ketteringtowncouncil.gov.uk.

We highly recommend the Recycle Now resource for understanding the different recycling labels, and making sure you are savvy about your seals. Specifically watch out for the greenwashing symbol below called 'the Green Dot' - this symbol does not necessarily mean that the packaging is recyclable, will be recycled or has been recycled.

Meanwhile 'Recycle with carrier bags at larger stores' labels are also great to watch out for, as these can be saved up until you have enough to take them with you to the supermarket.

Resin codes (shown as numbers 1-7 within a recycling symbol) designate different types of plastic. Numbers 1, 2 and 5 are widely recycled, meanwhile numbers 4 and 7 are sometimes recyclable at specialist sites.

For further information on plastic symbols, the types of plastic and whether they can be recycled locally visit The Sustainability Guide page on Recyclable Plastic.

• Leave your foil takeaway tins to soak overnight. After a quick rinse, you can turn these into a container for all your clean foil bits. Big chunks of foil are more easily detected by recycling sorting machinery, so we like to create these "foil burritos" to help out the tech.
• Have extra cardboard that wont fit in your blue bin? Flat pack and stack it next to your bin on collection day.

• Placing recycling materials in plastic bags in the blue bin (plastic bags are not recyclable)
• Placing contaminated recyclable materials in the recycling bin (eg. Pizza boxes with grease on them, soiled nappies, food waste)
• Only flush the three P's - Poo, (Toilet) Paper, and Pee. Wipes are not flushable even if they say they are, and they are not recyclable. Sanitary products, tooth-floss and cotton buds can all contain plastic. Any time you flush something down the loo, someone or something has to remove it in order for us to access clean drinking water and prevent pollution of our water courses and sea. Read more about the Unflushables campaign.