Frequently Asked Questions

Charnwood Borough Council are not obliged to provide these services for free . All the other Councils in Leicestershire charge for bulky waste collections, Charnwood being the last one to introduce a charge.

We often get asked whether we sell water butts. We don't, but Severn Trent do; telephone 08708 49 4 851 for details or see their website www.stwater.co.uk for details.

The recycling is taken to a materials recycling facility (MRF), currently based in Coalville. There it is hand sorted and separated into its respective materials.  The MRF then sells the material to merchants all over the country, where it is recycled into various products.

Yes, this can go in the purple bag.

Leicestershire County Council, in partnership with Blaby District Council operate a paint resuse scheme from Whetstone Recycling and Household Waste Site. Paints that are partially dry or mixed with other paints cannot be reused; gloss paints cannot be accepted due to the flammability of these products. Only clean, water based paint can be accepted.

All of Leicestershire's Household Waste Sites, commonly known as tips are licensed to accept paint for disposal. The paint however, must be completely dried. This allows the site to dispose of any paint, gloss or otherwise, that members of the public bring to the site.

For further information about anything to do with Leicestershire's household waste sites please contact the County Council on 0116 305 0001, or visit www.leics.gov.uk/index/environment

You will get some delivered to your door every six months. If you recycle a lot and have run out before your next delivery is due, you can either call us on 01509 634563, or call into the Council's Southfield Road offices in Loughborough. In the villages, your local parish council may be able to supply small quantities to keep you going.  Alternatively, we now have purple bag and Mind bag dispensers strategically placed around the Borough, please view the list of dispensers on our website.

All sites are open seven days a week, 8am-8pm (April-October) and 8am-6pm (November-March)  All sites are closed on Christmas day, Boxing Day and New Years day.  For more information click here.

For example a band D property in Charnwood charge is £1208.98 for 2006. This raises very high expectations of the refuse and recycling service which actually costs each household only £47.09. Most of the remainder (nearly £900) goes to Leicestershire County Council for Education, Social Services, and Highways. About £170 goes to the Emergency Services, and the Parish and Town Councils take an average of £40. We are always striving to deliver value for money but please don’t think of it as costing you £1000 or more for refuse and recycling, it doesn’t.

We recommend that uncooked food waste, such as vegetable peelings, tea bags and egg shells, should be placed in a home composter. Cooked food waste, such as left-overs can be placed in a food digester. For current offers and further information on home composters, and cooked food waste digesters, call the County Council on 0116 305 7005, or click here.

The glass collected in the green box is first taken to a materials recycling facility currently based in Coalville.  From there it is taken by road to a re-processor, where it is washed, crushed and placed into a furnace to be melted down. The recycled glass is most often used to make new glass bottles. This process can take as little as an hour before a new bottle is created! Did you know recycling one glass bottle or jar saves enough energy to power your TV for one and a half hours?

Quite possibly. The volume of waste is not static – it is ever increasing throughout the economic cycle. Legislation linked to the use of landfill is likely to get more demanding and all Councils will probably be called upon to reduce the use of landfill.

The box or bag will have a sticker stuck on by the crew explaining which material is present that should not be there. The box or bag will not be collected. Contaminated bags and boxes will have to be re-sorted by the householder before the next collection. 

Unfortunately, Charnwood Borough Council do not operate a trade waste collection service.  You need to ring a commercial waste contractor and arrange a contract.