Billericay Terracycle UK

04/03/2026

Sorry I haven posting for a while. But next week is the Big Plastic Count which you might be interested in joining. Look here for details

The UK’s biggest people-powered investigation into household plastic waste.

25/01/2026

It's Billericay Community Garden's first Discovery day of 2026 on Saturday. DO please come along and take a look at how far we have got in 2025

13/02/2025

Billericay high street Boots have just installed a blister pack recycling bin! Hurrah! You have to post the packs individually but you don’t have to sign up … well I didn’t. If you sign up you can get points but they have quite a tight restrictions so I didn’t bother. You can go on line and check if your local Boots is now part of the latest roll out of the scheme. Happy posting!!

03/01/2025

Happy New Year everyone!

Have you enjoyed choccies in a plastic tub this Christmas?
There is a great recycling scheme for these containers.
The scheme runs from 1 Jan - 16 Feb 2025. with the closest drop-off points (pubs) in Billericay being Inn on the Green, Mountnessing Rd and The Noak Bridge, Wash Road, Laindon.

https://www.tub2pub.co.uk/tub2pub/

https://www.greeneking.co.uk/pubs-near-me?

Please check out these links and get recycling.

All the best
Frances

Thanks Fiona for the heads-up on this!

Find your closest pub using our Greene King Pub Finder. With locations across the UK from Aberdeen to Cornwall, there’s a Greene King pub near you.

30/11/2024

Last Friday, we had the pleasure of welcoming Marie Goldman - Chelmsford MP to Chelmsford Library to view the 'Letters from the Global South' exhibition.

The thought-provoking and powerful exhibition displays letters and pictures by school children from countries like Nigeria, Pakistan, and South Africa. It offers a window into how children in other parts of the world are coping with the changes that are happening around them as global temperatures rise.

Read more about the exhibition and where you can view it over the next few weeks here: https://libraries.essex.gov.uk/news/letters-from-the-global-south-popup-exhibition

05/11/2024

I'd love to meet you at the Billericay Community Garden Open Day on Saturday (9 Nov) It's more of a working party to try to get the garden back into a wonderful growing area it used to be. 9.30 onwards on Saturday. At the back of the Carpark of Emmanuel Church. If you have a little spare time we'd really appreciate some help!

06/06/2024

I'm on Phoenix FM this lunchtime with one of our super plastic sorters Wendy, talking not particularly about recycling but the zerohour.uk campaign for the Climate and Nature bill. If you are concerned about the decline in nature and changes to our climate take a look at what you can simply do in the run up to the election to try to make a difference and make our candidates take notice. To precis David Attenborough "The science says that we need dramatic action soon, we're running out of time but there its still hope." Don't let time run out, go to action.zerohour.uk today and sign! Thanks ###

09/04/2024

Attention: This is an important message, I implore you to read it through to the end, and if possible respond.

Dear Terracycler,
I am hoping that you are now able to recycle the vast majority of plastics either by the kerb side collection or at a supermarket. I for one am finding it a reasonable solution. I am still looking for a home for toothpaste, so if you have any ideas please let me know.

As I have nothing new to say about recycling I am writing to you on a different but somewhat connected matter in the hope that you are as interested in the environment and climate as I am. (

I am sure that we are all concerned about the state of the climate and how it affects nature. It is hard to know what we as individuals can do. Like grains of sand, alone we are insignificant, but together we can make changes.

The Climate and Nature Bill, which is currently going through Parliament, is the only proposed piece of legislation that would make sure the UK does its bit to tackle the climate and nature crisis. The Bill should make residents and businesses in our constituency healthier, happier, more resilient, and more prosperous and crucially help to save our environment. This Bill, which had its first reading on 21 March with its second reading due on Friday 17 May, is supported by lots of people from many walks of life.

Zero Hour is the national campaign to raise awareness and action for The Climate and Nature Bill. Through this we are being encouraged to sign and send a letter to our MP, both sitting and prospective, to encourage them to support the Bill. There is a lot of information including the wording of the Bill on the website at https://www.zerohour.uk/ so I would like to encourage you to visit the website and if you are so inclined please sign the letter to the candidates for the General Election. This is non-party-political, a truly cross-party effort, so on the website you will see that MPs from all parties as well as scientists, councils and more than 500 organisations nationwide are supporting the Bill.

Wendy, one of my dedicated Terracycle sorters, and I have now launched a campaign in support of Zero Hour ahead of the general election asking local residents and organisations in the Billericay & Basildon constituency to support the campaign. We aim to show all the candidates standing for Parliament in the constituency, whichever party they are from, that whether or not they are elected they need to support action on the climate & nature crisis.

You can learn more about why we desperately need the Bill by watching this one minute video featuring Chris Packham:

https://youtu.be/yUb5Lb_hn1M

All you need to do is click the link below. There is also an option for signing as an organisation if you own a business or are part of an organisation:
https://action.zerohour.uk

If you do sign, it would be great if you could also share the link with your friends and networks. The more people who sign up, the more chance there is of this Bill becoming law.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts!

Ask your UK General Election 2024 candidates to back the CAN Bill.

14/01/2024

Update on Sainsbury's https://www.about.sainsburys.co.uk/sustainability/plan-for-better/our-stories/2021/flexible-plastics?fbclid=IwAR3okjKlDSpkGLn8W8xRfzUH4SiNzwclE0AtV3c3J9n_ou8aKCMIng53n0k

Flexible plastics are currently not accepted by most councils in the UK with around only 16 per cent of UK, councils offering flexible plastic recycling facilities. Resulting in customers being unable to recycle their different types of flexible plastics near where they live.

14/01/2024

Dear Friends
It is with some sadness that we have decided to halt the Teracycle drop-off point. There are a number of reasons which I will explain later down this post but for now the bin will be closed from 1 Feb. All your soft scrunchable plastics can go to major supermarkets including Waitrose, Tesco, and Co-op and I will advise you where you can recycle other items,

Reasoning and Information.
Terracycle have stopped the collection of sweet and confectionary wrappers, crisp and snack packaging, and toothpaste and many supermarkets have taken on the recycling of soft plastics. I have spoken to Waitrose and Co-op in Billericay about their small bins and they basically said they clear the bins many times a day and people need to just leave their recycling by the bin if it is full. There are lists of what they take on their websites. Unfortunately I have not been able to find such an extensive selection on Asda, Sainsbury’s., Aldi and Lidl websites, but that’s not to say they don’t do it.

Waitrose: https://www.johnlewispartnership.media/news/waitrose/24022023/new-uk-based-soft-plastic-recycling-available-at-waitrose
Tesco https://www.tescoplc.com/news/2021/shoppers-can-now-return-all-their-soft-plastic-packaging-to-recycling-points-at-every-large-tesco-store-in-the-uk
Co-op https://www.coop.co.uk/environment/soft-plastics

There are other opportunities for recycling hard plastics
L’Occitaine, Superdrug and Boots take make-up using different systems.
There is a deal with L’Occitaine offering 10% off an item on the day. Shops are in Chelmsford, Lakeside, Bluewater and Stratford. Alternatively you can send off for an envelope if you buy something online.
https://uk.loccitane.com/recycling-programme

Boots also take toothpaste tubes.
https://www.recyclenow.com/recycle-an-item/toothpaste-tubes

Pringles are redesigning their tubes to remove the metal base which is what makes their recycling difficult. You will be able to place the new packaging in the kerbside recycling.

Dunelm recycle duvets and pillows in their stores.

There is a way of sending off Contact Lenses via vision direct UK https://www.visiondirect.co.uk/recycling-contact-lenses

You can send off used postage stamps to RNIB. https://www.rnib.org.uk/get-involved/fundraise/do-your-own-fundraising/save-your-stamps-for-rnib/

Here is another way to find out about local recycling opportunities
https://www.recyclenow.com/recycle-an-item

This all means that as individuals we have to work harder to recycle but just remember our efforts are helping the environment. I am hoping that the situation becomes so difficult for the supermarkets that they put pressure on the manufacturers to stop using so much plastic.

I am not quite closing the drop-off point so that I can stay in touch with Terracycle in the hope that they will come up with a better solution for blister pack recycling!

Sorry that there is so much information. It’s great that our team doesn’t have to do this anymore (this cloud does have a silver lining!) but unfortunately that leaves it down to you, our loyal donators.
Thank you so much for all the wonderful sorting that you have done over the years, we really do appreciate it.

Do please get in touch if you need more advice or you have information to impart, we would love to hear from you.

Frances and the Terracycle sorters.

Find out how to properly dispose of your household items with our recycling tool, including an A-Z of items to help you quickly find the information you require.