Glass glorious glass

Glass is endlessly and 100% recyclable and can be used to make new bottles and jars over and over again.


Smashing news! From 1 August 2024, all empty glass bottles and jars of any colour can be recycled in your green bin (or bags if you are on a bag collection).

Give them a quick rinse first, leave labels, caps and lids on and they'll get recycled too.

You can still use your local bottle bank.

Yes please 

Recycle all these types of glass in your green bin (or bags if you are on a bag collection):

Bottles (leave any plastic or metal caps and lids on and they'll get recycled too)

  • soft drinks and mixer bottles
  • cooking oil bottles
  • sauce and condiment bottles
  • beer, wine and spirits bottles
  • medicine bottles
  • skincare and perfume bottles

Jars (leave any plastic or metal caps and lids on and they'll get recycled too)

  • jams, marmalade and preserve jars
  • baby food jars
  • chocolate spread jars
  • sauce and condiment jars
  • coffee jars
  • yeast extract jars
image showing a green recycling wheelie bin with glass, paper, card, cartons, food and drinks cans, foil, aerosols, plastic pots, plastic bottles and plastic bags, which can all be recycled in Leeds

No thanks - black bin

Take these items to your local household waste recycling centre:

  • window panes

  • light bulbs

  • drinking glasses

Pyrex and glassware in good condition can be donated to your local charity shop.

Report an untidy bottle bank

If waste has been left on the ground surrounding our glass recycling containers, you can report fly tipping online.

If you know who dumped the waste, you can also report this to us, and we may be able to give them a fine or prosecute them.

Report a damaged or overflowing bottle bank

We regularly empty public glass recycling containers as part of a scheduled collection. There is no need to report a full container, we will empty them as soon as we can.

If your nearest container is full please use another one nearby or take your waste to a household waste recycling centre. Do not leave any waste on the ground surrounding our containers as this is fly tipping and you could be fined or prosecuted.

You can report a damaged bottle bank or any other issues with our glass recycling containers by emailing leeds.waste@leeds.gov.uk.

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