Renfrewshire Council

How should I recycle foil?

1. Always wash your kitchen foil thoroughly before recycling
2. If you collect drinks cans as part of a Cash for Cans scheme, you may be able to sell used aluminium foil too.
3. For more information on foil, visit www.alupro.org.uk

As well as foil, you can usually recycle these other aluminium items:

• Drinks cans
• Milk bottle tops
• Barbeque and freezing trays
• Cigarette and tobacco foil
• Screw top lids from wine bottles

Do the scrunch test!

There are some packaging items such as crisp packets that can look like aluminium foil but are actually made from metallised plastic film. This type of material is not currently recycled and should not be put in your recycling bin.

An easy way to find out if an item is foil or metallised plastic film, is to do the scrunch test. Simply scrunch the item in your hand - if it remains 'scrunched' it is foil and can be recycled; if it springs back it is probably metallised plastic film and not recyclable.