Milk, juice and soup cartons, crisp tubes, foil trays and balled-up foil can go in your mixed recycling bin from Monday 16 November. Here is what goes in and what still does not.
From Monday 16 November, food and drink cartons and aluminium foil can go in your normal mixed recycling in Brighton and Hove. Brighton & Hove City Council announced the change on Wednesday (council announcement, 11 November).
Until now, cartons had to be taken to one of 68 separate bins with orange lids at the city’s recycling points. Foil could not be collected at all, because the council had no way to process it.
What you can put in from 16 November
The council says these will be accepted in mixed recycling:
- empty food and drink cartons, such as milk, juice, soup and plant-based milk
- crisp tubes, such as Pringles tubes, and gravy granule tubes
- foil trays
- foil, scrunched into a ball about the size of a tennis ball or larger
The usual rule still applies: everything goes in clean, dry and loose, with no bags. That covers a kerbside bin, a box and a communal recycling bin on the street.
What to do this week
Do not put cartons or foil in the recycling before Monday. The council asks residents to save them for next week’s collection, or keep using the orange-lidded carton banks until then. It says it does not want them “contaminating other recycling collections” in the meantime.
The council says it still finds a large number of cartons in refuse bins. Its view is that many more can now be recycled.
Why it has taken this long
Cartons are made from a mix of materials, which makes them harder to sort than most packaging. The council has been working with its waste contractor, Veolia, to upgrade the Hollingdean Materials Recovery Facility. New equipment has been fitted and the site layout changed so cartons can be sorted alongside other materials.
The plant on Hollingdean Lane sorts household waste from both Brighton and Hove and East Sussex. Veolia says the city produces about 120,000 tonnes of household waste a year.
Councillor Tim Rowkins, Deputy Leader and Cabinet member for Net Zero and Environmental Services, said collecting cartons and foil was “something we’ve wanted to achieve for a long time”.
“By collecting them alongside other recyclables, we can save residents a trip to a recycling point and encourage more people to recycle them instead of putting them in with their waste,” he said.
What still does not go in
The council has also restated what stays out of mixed recycling:
- Plastic film and soft packaging, such as crisp packets, bread bags, biscuit wrappers and pet food pouches. Larger supermarkets take these, and carrier bags too.
- Glass, which always goes in the separate glass box or communal glass bin.
- Hard plastics, such as garden furniture and children’s toys. These go to one of the city’s two household waste recycling sites, at Wilson Avenue and Old Shoreham Road. Our tip opening times page has the hours.
Anything still usable can go to a charity shop. The council’s full list is on its recycle right page.
What it means for you
From Monday, rinse cartons and drop them in with your cans and bottles, and fold your foil into a ball rather than binning it. Your collection day does not change: our bin collection days page has how to find yours. If you have been storing cartons for a trip to an orange-lidded bank, you can stop after this week.
Sources
- Brighton & Hove City Council, More materials coming to recycling collections next week, 11 November 2026
- Veolia South Downs, Hollingdean Materials Recovery Facility
- Brighton & Hove City Council, recycle right
Have your say