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Always in the yellow bin: aluminium foil

Aluminium foil can be recycled by scrunching it up into a ball the size of a tennis ball and placing it into your yellow bin. 

If your foil ball is a bit on the small side, keep adding to it until it’s big enough to be recycled. Alternatively, you can collect smaller pieces of foil in an aluminium can (like a soft drink can) before placing it in the recycling bin.

Aluminium screw-top lids, like the ones on wine bottles, can be scrunched up with your foil. Other metal lids, like the ones from jars and cans, need to be gathered separately.

Aluminium trays and pie plates can go into your recycling bin loose – just make sure they’re relatively clean first. 

If you’re not sure if something is actually made of foil, do the scrunch test. If it stays scrunched up in a ball, it’s foil, and if it pops back out, it’s likely to be foil covered in plastic, which cannot be recycled.

Silver-lined packets, like the ones chips and crackers come in, should be placed in your red/blue landfill bin.

Aluminium foil is one of the most valuable materials to recycle, and recycling it saves more than 90% of the energy required to produce aluminium from raw materials.