A to Z of reusing, recycling and waste disposal

Consider donating unwanted magazines and comics to your friends and relatives, colleagues or your local doctors surgery. You may even find that some comics have resale value. They can be recycled in your green recycling bin or at your nearest bring site or recycling centre. They will be made into new paper products.

Try to avoid using peat based compost as rare peat bog ecosystems are destroyed to make it. Instead why don't you make your own compost from fruit and vegetable peelings, grass cuttings, garden prunings and more. We are unable to take compostable bags in brown bins because under testing we found they do not fully decompose in garden waste within 12 weeks. These bags can be home composted or should be put in your black household waste bin. You can find out more information about how to make your own compost and the compost bins we offer on the composting page.

Contact, a Leeds community interest company, are always looking for donations of unwanted computer equipment. They refurbish them for use by other not-for-profit and community organisations or recycle the materials. Their telephone number is 0113 242 4421. Computers from your home can also be taken to your nearest recycling centre. Please put them in the electronic equipment skip. Materials such as plastics and metals are recycled into new products.

Please remember that used cooking oil can be recycled and made into biodiesel. Please do not pour it down the drain. To recycle your cooking oil please take to your nearest recycling centre and put it in the used cooking oil container. It will be used to create bio-diesel or as a fuel in an energy from waste facility.

You can take broken crockery to your local recycling centre where you should put it in the rubble and inerts skip. It will be used for road building or surface cover on a landfill site. Restrictions apply for disposing of some types of rubbish at our household recycling sites including ceramics. To find out more please see our guide to DIY waste disposal.

If your unwanted hair appliance is in good working order, please donate it to a charity shop, local reuse organisation, or to the Revive Leeds reuse shop at the Kirkstall or Seacroft recycling centres. If you are replacing a broken hair appliance, the retailer supplying your new appliance should offer you a take back service. Alternatively, you can recycle your hair appliance by taking it to your nearest bring site that has a WEEE bank (see W for a list of sites) or to your nearest recycling centre, where you can put it in the small electrical waste container.

Hardcore* and many building materials can be used again. Bricks, large pieces of stone, doors and windows can be sold to architectural salvage yards. Brick* and rubble* can be taken to your nearest recycling centre and put in the skips marked Bricks and Rubble. These materials are used for cover and roads on landfill sites. *Restrictions apply for disposing of some types of rubbish at our household recycling sites including hardcore, bricks and rubble. To find out more please see our guide to DIY waste disposal.

Hazardous waste should be dealt with appropriately. Please see Asbestos for more information on this. Please see Chemicals for more information on these. You can also contact the Environment Agency on 0870 850 6506 for advice on disposing of hazardous waste.

Help the Aged recycle hearing aids. Please ensure units are in working order and send them to: Hearing Aid Appeal Help the Aged FREEPOST, LON13616 London, EC1B 1PS.

Please see Chemicals

Please see Chemicals.

Please return used hypodermic needles to your doctor's surgery or health centre for safe disposal. DO NOT put these in your rubbish or recycling bin. You can order on prescription a yellow sharps bin for needles through your GP practice.