Recycling glass and plastic bottles

Just arrived in the East Midlands from the US.  Until our furnishings arrive we are staying in a furnished holiday cottage and I can't quite figure out what to do with glass and plastic bottles. At the end of the drive there are big brown bins in addition to the big black bins that are clearly for garbage. The brown bins are supposedly for recycling, but I get the sense from something written on them that this is not cans-and-bottles recycling as it would be in the states, but maybe composting?  Can anyone clarify?

You can check the local council website to find out what you are allowed to put in the brown bin. Each council seems to have different bins for different types of recycling (some for cardboard and plastic bottles, some for garden waste etc.).

If you don't have anything you can put the glass and plastic bottles in, there should be a recycling bank somewhere nearby that you can take them to - a lot of supermarkets have recycling banks in their car parks, where you can take all your recycling if you have nowhere to do it at home (glass and plastic bottles, cardboard, clothes and shoes etc.). It's worth doing a Google search for recyling banks near where you are staying.

I second checking the council's website-- that's always been helpful for me.  However, if your council's website is less than informative, maybe take a peek at what your neighbors are doing?

My council has mandatory recycling, and have made it easy enough to do so, as we don't have to segregate the different materials, as you would have to in parts of the US. (glass/cans/plastic/cardboard, all in the same bin).  But in my experience, some councils do require each type of material to be separated.

Composting bins are normally smaller in size than a typical bin though. For what it's worth, mine's about 1/5 of the size of our rubbish bin, and 1/10th of the size of our recycling bin.

Thanks for these responses.   The past few days of our new UK life have been so hectic that recycling slipped into the background as a concern.  :-)   But what I have learned is that the brown bins that have the message about being for garden waste are really just for regular recycling.   Apparently the impetus to recycle garden waste failed.