{"id":536375,"date":"2026-04-17T18:03:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T18:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/536375\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T18:03:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T18:03:10","slug":"im-a-bin-man-and-theres-1-material-people-need-to-stop-putting-in-recycling-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/536375\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I’m a bin man and there’s 1 material people need to stop putting in recycling now’"},"content":{"rendered":"

A UK bin man has urged all households to stop putting one common material in their recycling bin, as many might not realise it can’t be recycled – which can lead to your bin not being emptied<\/p>\n

Alice Sjoberg Social News Reporter<\/p>\n

12:28, 17 Apr 2026<\/p>\n

\"Man<\/p>\n

A bin man has urged people to stop putting one thing in their recycling bin (stock image)(Image: Getty)<\/p>\n

A bin man<\/a> in the UK has urged all households to stop putting one common material in their recycling <\/a>bins, as it can prevent the refuse workers from emptying your recycling bin.<\/a><\/p>\n

The No1 Binman <\/a>on TikTok<\/a>, a self-described ‘binfluencer’, regularly posts useful content helping Brits understand proper waste disposal practices.<\/p>\n

The majority of his clips respond to questions he’s received from his 168,700 followers, as his goal is to stop people putting different materials and refuse in the wrong bins, as doing so could prevent your bins from being emptied in bin collection day. However, it can be confusing to keep track on all the different rules.<\/p>\n

While some products will have logos on them saying if they should be recycled, or thrown into the regular waste bin,<\/a> sometimes this isn’t the case.<\/p>\n

One material that often doesn’t have any markings of how it should be disposed of is polystyrene. Also known as Styrofoam, this material is often used for take-away food containers, and to package white goods like microwaves. Polystyrene is also sometimes also used for other food packaging, such as like multi-pack yoghurts.<\/p>\n

While it can be easy to just assume this material should be recycled, the bin man has now told people this is not the case, in an informative yet entertaining video that he shared on TikTok.<\/p>\n

Content cannot be displayed without consent<\/p>\n

“When Karen tries to explain why her recycling bin has polystyrene in it,” he wrote in the overlay text of the video.<\/p>\n

The video then saw the bin man to Kylie Minogue’s song ‘Better the Devil You Know’, and specifically the lyrics ‘no more excuses, no no. Because I’ve heard them all before, a hundred times or more.”<\/p>\n

While some viewers praised the refuse worker for his video, it left some with more questions.<\/p>\n

“And where are we supposed to put polystyrene?” one viewer wondered. Meanwhile, someone else said: “But but the kids did it.”<\/p>\n

How to dispose of polystyrene<\/p>\n

According to the website RecycleNow, polystyrene, also known as styrofoam, should generally be disposed of in your general waste bin because it is difficult to recycle, breaks easily, and clogs machinery.<\/p>\n

Because of this, bin men may refuse to collect rubbish, which they can do if bin contents violates council guidelines. Common reasons include contaminated recycling (wrong items), overfilled bins with open lids, excessive weight, or “side waste” (extra bags left next to the bin).<\/p>\n

However, large, clean pieces of polystyrene can sometimes be taken to specialized Household Recycling Centres (HRCs) or retailers for recycling. Do not put it in household recycling bins. Clean, moulded polystyrene can also be kept for future shipping, insulation, or craft projects.<\/p>\n

For advice in your area, you can use a local council website or a search tool to check if they have dedicated polystyrene recycling containers, as rules vary by location.<\/p>\n

Because of how difficult it is to recycle, it’s advisable to try and avoid buying food and drink which comes in polystyrene. If you can\u2019t, simply put the containers in your rubbish bin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A UK bin man has urged all households to stop putting one common material in their recycling bin,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":536376,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[71113,1397,7658,6802,90,617,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-536375","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-binmen","9":"tag-environment","10":"tag-expert-advice","11":"tag-recycling","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-tiktok","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=536375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536375\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/536376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=536375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=536375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=536375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}