Council foil recycling

Councillor Irene Davidson recycles tin foil alongside Phil Tomlin (left) and Andy Shaw from the council’s recycling team.

Rochdale residents can now put tin foil into their light green recycling bins, along with their plastic bottles, tin cans, glass bottles and jars.

The council can collect tin foil of any colour, plus foil milk bottle tops and trays. All residents have to do is make sure everything’s ‘washed and squashed’ before they put it in their recycling bins.

Recycled tin foil is chipped into small pieces and melted to be used in the manufacture of other aluminium products.

Councillor Irene Davidson, cabinet member for environment and sustainability at the Council, said: “Recycling tin foil is really great news because it means residents can recycle more and free up space in their dark green bins for waste we can’t recycle at the moment.

“The more people recycle the less cash the council pays on landfill tax - so the money we save can be ploughed into other essential council services.”

In April the council congratulated residents after recycling figures showed it was number one in Greater Manchester for recycling plastic bottles, glass, tins, paper and cardboard – pushing Tameside and Stockport Councils into second and third place.

Dennis Pennill, Rochdale Council’s waste services manager, said: “We want to ensure residents have everything they need to recycle more so rubbish we can recycle goes on to make other things and save on environmental resources.

“It’s really important that residents know what goes in the right bin, because it removes problems such as overflowing bins and bags left at the side of bins – which we cannot collect.”