South Hams Recycling Information

In this section, residents living in South Hams can find information on recycling and refuse collection in their area.

Find out your collection days here.

Find out about household bulky waste collections here.

If you have missed your refuse/recycling collection, please contact South Hams District Council on 01803 861234 or you can report a missed collection online here.

For more recycling and waste information in South Hams, please click here.

What can I recycle?

Reusable White Sack

Household Plastic Packaging:

• Detergent and soap bottles (no pumps)
• Cleaning product bottles
• Skin care product bottles
• Pop and water bottles
• Milk bottles
• Pots (e.g. yoghurt, soup)
• Tubs (e.g. margarine, ice cream)
• Trays and punnets (meat trays, takeaway trays, fruit and veg trays)
• Plant pots (not black ones) 

Household metal packaging:

• Drink cans
• Food tins
• Biscuit or chocolate tins
• Aerosols (empty)
• Aluminium Foil
• Foil Trays (takeaway trays)
• Aluminium tubes ( e.g. tomato purée)
• Metal lids from jars and bottles

Empty all packaging and rinse clean.

Replace bottle lids and tops, and flatten bottles where possible.

You can leave labels on all packaging, but place film lids, absorbent pads etc. in your grey bin.

Remember, no plastic films or black plastic.

Box 1

• Paper
• Mixed Paper
• Magazine, brochures and catalogues
• White paper (e.g. computer paper, letters etc.)
• Envelopes (no plastic)
• Junk mail
• Glass bottles and jars
• Bottles of any colour (e.g. wine, beer, sauce, oil etc.)
• Jars of any colour (e.g. jam, sauce, baby food etc.)
• Non-food bottles and jars (e.g. perfume, aftershave, face creams)

Items must be sorted by material type within the box.

Paper must be free of dirt, food or paint. Dirty or greasy paper (such as chip shop wrappers) should go in your grey bin.

Metal lids and caps should go in the reusable sack.

Box 2

• Cardboard
• Cardboard boxes (e.g. cereal boxes, dishwasher tablet boxes)
• Corrugated cardboard
• Online delivery boxes and cardboard envelopes
• Greetings cards (no glitter)
• Egg boxes
• Brown paper
• Food and drink Cartons
• Batteries and Printer Cartridges:
  All household batteries including ‘button’ batteries from watches, hearing aids etc.
  Battery packs from household tools such as strimmers.
  Battery packs from laptops or phones.
  All household printer cartridges.

Items must be sorted by material type within the box.

Cardboard must be free of dirt, food or paint. Dirty or greasy cardboard (such as takeaway pizza boxes) should go in your grey bin.

Pieces of cardboard can be placed alongside Box 2 if your box is full, as long as they are under 75cm long.

Batteries should be placed in a small clear tied bag, such as a sandwich bag or empty bread bag. Cover the contacts on lithium and button batteries with sticky tape to reduce fire risk.

Food caddy

• Cooked and uncooked food

You can line your caddy with any bag, such as cereal bags, bread bags, salad bags and so on. Alternatively you can line your caddy with newspaper or leave the food loose.

Brown bin

Optional, chargeable garden waste collection.

• Grass cuttings
• Hedge cuttings
• Cut flowers and plants
• Weeds, leaves and twigs
• Branches up to 10 cm (4 inches) in diameter

For more information on the garden waste service, please click here.