Does your council provide bins or boxes for recyclables? If they do, then they should provide you with instructions as to what they will recycle. We have a green box for paper, plastic and glass, and everything else except garden waste goes in the main bin.
If you're keen to recycle but the council don't collect, most supermarkets and/or community centres operate recycling banks for all sorts of rubbish - if you can get it there, of course.
In America they have this great system whereby you take your plastic drinks bottles and your cans back to the supermarket, and for each one you 'post' you get a voucher for so many cents off your shopping.