Reuse and recycle

Many unwanted items can be useful to others, give them a new life by passing them on. This page offers advice on reuse and recycling, and tips on how to reduce waste. 

Donating your items locally 

Enter your postcode into the Zero Waste Scotland Reuse Tool to find your local reuse organisations that offer household collections of your items. The Charity Retail Association has a tool for locating your nearest charity shops. 

Donating by post 

Many charities offer services that allow you to post items for reuse free of charge. You can read more about how to do this on the Oxfam, British Heart Foundation, British Red Cross and Salvation Army websites. 

Donating clothing 

The Salvation Army operates many clothing banks around South Lanarkshire, use the Recycle Now tool to find clothing banks from the Salvation Army and other charities.

Some high-street retailers such as Primark, M&S, H&M have boxes for donating clothing and textiles for recycling. The items can be from any brand and many offer incentives for donating.

Many schools in South Lanarkshire also have clothing collection points and school uniform reuse programmes. 

Swaddle Hamilton, is a notable initiative that accepts donations of pre-loved baby and children’s clothing, equipment and toys.

Online services for donating items 

There are many websites online that allow you to donate items to others locally such as Freegle, Freecycle, Trashnothing as well as local free item Facebook groups. 

Recycling 

Find your nearest recycling points 

The Recycling Locator Tool will help you to find out what you can recycle in your local area.  

Electrical item recycling 

Retailers that sell electrical items have an obligation to provide takeback services for waste electrical and electronic equipment. Electrical recycling points can be found using the Recycle Your Electricals website. 

Difficult to recycle items 

Soft/flexible plastics- many supermarkets such as Co-op and Tesco offer soft/flexible plastic recycling in stores. This includes items like plastic crisp packets, pasta bags and chocolate wrappers. Look for the green ’recycle with bags at large supermarket’ logo on soft plastics for guidance on what can be recycled. 

Coffee pods - Podback offers free coffee pod recycling services for plastic and aluminium coffee pods locally and by post.  

Cosmetics - Boots recycle empty cosmetics that cannot be recycled at home like make-up palettes, compacts and lipsticks. Other brands such as Kiehls and Lush offer takeback and recycling services for packaging. 

Glasses and contact lenses - Specsavers offer in-store recycling services for glasses and contact lenses. 

Medicine and blister packs - Boots offer in-store recycling services for blister packs and medicine. 

Phones and other technology - Freedom Mobiles is an independent comparison tool that lets you compare prices for recycling your old mobile phones. Music Magpie also offers trade-in prices for old technology. 

Ink cartridges - can be recycled in Tesco stores using their recycling envelopes. Many brands such as HP and Canon offer free postal returns for used cartridges. 

Selling your items 

Selling items you no longer need is a great way to give old technology, clothing and household items a second life and earn some money.

Selling online 

Popular online selling platforms include eBay, Facebook Marketplace, Gumtree and Vinted.  

Selling in person 

There are many options for selling items in person such as local carboot sales and through stores like CeX that offer cash for games, blu-rays and technology. 

Reducing waste 

Reducing unsolicited mail 

Registering with the free Mailing Preference Service enables residents to opt-out of receiving unsolicited direct mail. 

Other things you can do to help the environment? 

Use a reusable coffee cup 

Many coffee retailers such as Pret and Costa Coffee offer reusable cup discounts and incentives. 

Clothing repair

Revolve Recycle in Cambuslang hosts weekly classes focused on clothing repair and reuse activities.