Where do Aluminium foil and foil trays go?

Aluminium is the most valuable material in a household bin and recycles indefinitely at a fraction of the energy of primary smelting, so clean foil is worth capturing. The obstacles are grease and size: greasy foil contaminates, and a single flat sheet is too light and too flat for the eddy current separator to fling out. Balling several pieces together solves the second problem. Foil takeaway trays recycle well once the food is out and the card lid is separated. A few schemes still exclude foil altogether, so check what your area takes.

How to prepare it

1. Wipe or rinse off the worst of the grease.
2. Scrunch pieces together into a ball at least the size of a golf ball.
3. Take the card lid off a foil tray and recycle it with paper.

What not to do

• Never recycle foil with food baked onto it; grease contaminates the melt and the bale.
• Never confuse metallised plastic film — crisp packets, sweet wrappers — with real foil.

Kerbside collection rules genuinely vary by council and county, and local rules always win over general guidance. The reasoning above is what transfers — if your service differs, it will usually be for a reason described here.

Other things that go to kerbside recycling bin

• Pizza boxes Recyclable if the card is only greasy; not if it is soaked or has food stuck to it. Tear off the clean lid if in doubt.
• Aerosol cans Empty aerosols go in the kerbside recycling in most areas. Never pierce them, never crush them, never bin a part-full one.
• Wrapping paper Plain paper: recycle. Foil, plastic-coated or glittery: general waste. The scrunch test settles it.
• Drinks cartons (Tetra Pak) Recyclable, but only where your scheme says so — they need a mill that separates the card from the plastic and foil.
• Shredded paper Depends entirely on your council. Loose shreds jam sorting lines; where they are accepted it is usually bagged or in food waste.
• Plastic bottle caps Leave the cap on the empty bottle. That is now the standard advice in most places.
• Envelopes with plastic windows Kerbside paper recycling in most areas — modern pulping screens the window out.
• Black plastic food trays Historically rejected because the optical sorter could not see them. Increasingly accepted now — check your council.