Dorset Council has announced that food and drink cartons, as well as foil trays and sheet foil, can now be placed in residents' household recycling bin for collection.

The Recycle for Dorset kerbside collection scheme has been an enormous success since its introduction over a decade ago and Dorset Council is currently the number one unitary council in England for recycling, with 59.1% of the waste collected being recycled.

Cartons have been difficult to recycle in the past as they are similar to cardboard when sorting mechanically but contain foil/plastic. However, the council's sorting facility partners are now able to separate these cartons for recycling which the council hopes residents will find more convenient than the banks in car parks that have been provided.

The council has issued the following guide:-

Cartons and cardboard-tube containers

We now accept empty food cartons and drinks cartons (e.g. soup, milk, juice etc.) in your recycling bin or box, alongside the usual paper/plastic/cans etc. we already collect.

We will also accept cardboard tube-shaped containers (e.g. curved crisps, hot chocolate, gravy granules) too.

Just make sure they're completely empty, flatten them, and pop the lids back on (if possible) before placing in your recycling bin.

Foil

We now accept the following foil items in your recycling bin or box:

• Foil containers (e.g. pie trays, take-away dishes)
• Foil sheets (e.g. to cover food or wrap sandwiches)
• Confectionary foil wrappings (e.g. Easter eggs, inner wrappings of chocolate bars)
• Foil lids (e.g. yoghurts, noodles.)

We would be very grateful if everyone could rinse foil trays and wipe sheet foil clean if possible. Sheet foil or wrappers should be scrunched into a ball roughly the size of a tennis ball before placing in your recycling bin. If it does not scrunch, it's not the kind of foil that we can recycle.

Some items that look like foil (e.g. crisp packets, sweet/biscuit/chocolate bar wrappers, pet food pouches etc.) are joined with plastic or paper. Therefore, people should continue to keep these out of your recycling.

Cllr Jon Andrews, Dorset Council's Cabinet Member for Place-based services, said: "We're very proud of our kerbside recycling scheme, and this development makes a great service even better. By adding cartons and foil to the list of items we can receive in household recycling bins, we can prevent even more waste from going unrecycled.

"Not only does recycling waste help us protect our natural environment, but it also saves us money that can be spent on essential services. I'd like to thank everyone that has been involved in this service improvement and look forward to seeing just how much of an impact it will make."