Recycling

Can you repair it?

Before throwing away or recycling your item, have you considered trying to repair it? Do you know that Thame has its very own Repair Cafe, run by a dedicated group of volunteers? Find out when the next event is, and contact them here.

What can I recycle?

To find out what you can recycle at home we recommend you download the Bin Zone App from the Google Play store or the App Store , or head to the SODC Binzone webpage. Here you can type in the item you are trying to dispose of and they will advise you if and how you can recycle it. Oxfordshire County Council also have a Waste & Recycling page full of useful information including:

• Recycling your Electricals,
• Details about a Library of Things – where you can borrow what you need rather than having to purchase it,
• A link to their Waste Wizard – to find out what to do with larger items
• Details about how you can get support to borrow or repair items, so that they can be kept in use for longer,
• Details on how to find a recycling centre,
• and more.

Specialist recycling points in Thame

Below you can see a list of places in Thame where you can recycle items that may not be recyclable from the kerbside. If you know of any others please let us know!

Other links to support you to reduce your waste

• • Recycle your Electricals– find out how to recycle anything with a plug, battery or cable. Also advice on fast tech – the small things from charging cables to solar lights and mini fans that is cheap, and can break quickly.

• • Restart Project – Helps people learn how to repair their broken electronics, and rethink how they consume them in the first place.

• • Reuse Network – This organization supports reuse charities across the UK, helping to alleviate poverty, reduce waste, and tackle climate change. They distribute affordable, good quality furniture and electrical appliances to people in need.

• • Freecycle – A grassroots, non-profit movement where people give and get items for free in their local communities. It’s all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills.

• • Freegle – Similar to Freecycle, Freegle is a UK-based platform where you can give away and find free items in your local area. It’s a great way to keep items out of landfills and find new homes for things you no longer need.

• • ReusefulUK – This network of scrapstores and creative reuse centres shares information about reusing resources for community benefit. They focus on promoting the reuse of materials for creative and educational purposes.

• • iFixit – This site offers a vast collection of free repair manuals and guides for a wide range of devices, from smartphones to household appliances. They also have a community forum where you can ask for help. There is a UK website to buy tools and parts to enable fixing of electronics.

• • HowFixIt – A website the provides guides and instructions on how to fix laptops and other tech such as iPhones, Tablets and games consoles. It also has a YouTube channel here: How-FixIT – YouTube

• • Global Repair Café website – This includes repair guides for loads of products, including laptops.

• • TerraCycle offers free recycling programmes funded by brands, manufacturers, and retailers around the world to help you collect and recycle your hard-to-recycle waste. For example, crisp packets, cheese wrappers, beauty packaging, . A variety of organisations (such as schools and churches), as well as individuals, act as drop-off points for you to take your hard-to-recycle waste to. Once they have enough, they then send the waste to be recycled by TerraCycle and in turn earn rewards for the school or their chosen non-profit organisation. There are various drop-off locations local to Thame (see the TerraCycle website for the full list of locations for each recycling programme) but you may need to travel round a little to drop-off all your items at the different locations.