Which bin cans go in now
In Glasgow, tins and cans go in the grey bin, alongside plastics, cartons and soft plastics. This changed when the grey bin was introduced — metals used to sit with other mixed recycling, and plenty of households are still putting them in blue, where they do not belong.
Blue is now paper, card and cardboard only. If you are unsure which bins you should have, our Glasgow bin colours guide sets out all five.
Rinse, don't crush, leave the label
Rinsing matters. Food residue contaminates the load around it and is the main reason recycling gets downgraded. A quick swill under a running tap while you are already washing up is enough.
Do not crush steel food cans flat: the sorting machinery separates by shape as well as by magnetism, and a flattened can can be misread as paper or card. Aluminium drinks cans are more forgiving. Sharp lids should go inside the can with the top pinched over, which protects whoever handles it next.
- Rinse out food residue
- Leave labels on — they burn off
- Don't crush steel food cans
- Aluminium drinks cans can be squashed
- Put lids inside the can and pinch shut
- Empty aerosols are fine; part-full are not
Got a garage full of metal?
Radiators, tools, bike frames and old appliances collected and sent for recovery.
What happens to the metal
Metals are pulled out of the sorting stream magnetically — steel by magnet, aluminium by eddy current — then baled and sent for smelting. Both can be recycled repeatedly without material degradation, which is why they are the most valuable everyday recyclable.
That value is also why scrap metal has its own commercial route rather than going through general waste. Larger quantities are worth collecting separately, which is what our scrap metal collection service is for.
More than a few cans
If you are clearing a garage, a workshop or a house, metal turns up in volume: old radiators, tools, bike frames, garden furniture, appliances and cable. None of that belongs in a wheelie bin and all of it has real recovery value.
Appliances are a separate case again — anything with a plug is WEEE (anything with a plug or a battery) and has to be handled and documented under those rules, not simply scrapped. Fridges in particular are gas-bearing. That is appliance removal rather than scrap.
For everything else metal, we collect it, separate it and send it for recovery under our SEPA registration (WCR/R/3002381).
