Rethinking Rubbish

Aims and achievements

Our aim is to:
Reduce the amount of household waste sent to landfill. We do this by informing local people about items that can be recycled (but are not currently collected by Dorset Council), and where to take such rubbish.

Here is an A-Z of local (and some national) recycling opportunities. Check here for a list of items that can be recycled at the tip.

What about you?
If you, like us, are determined to do something to reduce the amount of waste that ends up in landfill, you could join our group, sign up for our newsletter updates, help at our recycling events or like and follow our Facebook page.

What have we achieved so far?

Set up a monthly recycling event to collect items that can’t be placed in the domestic recycling bins.
Held information display stands at various community events.
Supported local litter-pickers, Wareham Wombles.
Organised a repair café and clothes swap.

Tetrapaks, foil, books, bras...

Did you know you CAN recycle the following items locally?

Tin foil and tetrapaks (juice and milk cartons) – Streche Road Car Park. These can now be added to your home recycling.

Coffee pods (paper and metallic) and disposable vapes can be taken to Wareham waste and recycling facility.

Books (too old for charity shops!) – Westminster Road tip.

Used bras – Bare Necessities, our local zero waste shop in South Street. Bras are collected there, taken to Poole Hospital to raise funds for Breast Cancer Research, and have a destination in Africa. We also collect these at our monthly recycling events.

Old shoes – the Air Ambulance has a collection box in Howards Lane car park.

Champagne and wine corks, rubber gloves and cards with glitter

Champagne/sparkling wine corks, rubber gloves and cards with glitter, ribbons etc which can’t go into your normal recycling can be brought to our monthly recycling event (2nd Saturday of the month at Not Just Sundaes 10-11.30am)

Plant pots

Plastic plant pots can be recycled at Norden Farm near Corfe Castle, and also at Dobbies Garden Centre in Owermoigne.

Electronics, phones, DVDs and CDs

Old mobile phones, laptops, tablets, DVDs, CDs etc can be sold at CeX, High Street, Poole.

Old mobile phones can also be handed in to Weldmar Hospice charity shop in West Street, Wareham and also at the Scout Hut at Lychett Matravers on the 2nd Saturday of each month.

(Please remember to remove your sim card and restore factory settings first)

Spectacles/Glasses

You can take your old (intact) spectacles to CH Webster opticians on North Street, Wareham. or Asda Opticians in Poole.

Blister packs

Sustainable Wareham has purchased ReFactory storage containers for collecting cut up empty blister packs, and will take these from anyone who comes along to one of our monthly recycling events. Collection of blister packs has proved very popular so far, and Sustainable Wareham have been very grateful for donations towards the cost of purchasing these containers. Some Boots shops will also take them (Swanage, Poole and Bournemouth). If you can’t make it to our monthly collection, Bare Necessities will act as a drop off point.

A longer term option is to make Pharmaceutical Companies responsible for dealing with their own waste. Please sign this petition to stop medicine packaging (including blister packs) from going to landfill. And any other suggestions would be welcome.

We would like to find more businesses or organisations willing to take materials for recycling and to reduce the amount of non-recyclable materials that they generate. We are hoping to work with the council to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill by improving the collection of recyclable materials. You can find a list of other recycling possibilities at: http://winonwaste.org/ .

Rethinking Rubbish projects

Rethinking Rubbish in Action

As part of our drive to reduce the amount of household waste from Wareham that is getting sent to landfill, we'll be running monthly events where you can come and recycle the stuff you can’t put in your household recycling bins. De-clutter and help save the Planet!