‘Stick to the Six’call over recycling

Perth and Kinross Council is asking residents to ‘Stick to the Six’ to prevent putting the wrong items into their blue kerbside recycling bins.

The call comes after “a rise in contamination” in blue bins since coronavirus pandemic lockdown restrictions began in March last year.

The av e r a g e rate of contamination over the year was 22.4 per cent, peaking at 29 per cent in November.

Perth and Kinross Council had to pay an additional £50,000 in penalties to its reprocessor for the removal and disposal of contamination.

In addition to the cost, putting the wrong items into blue bins soils and destroys material that can be recycled.

This has an impact in terms of the environment as waste that could be recycled has to be disposed of instead.

Perth and Kinross Council’s head of environment and consumer services, Mark Butterworth, stressed the six main materials that should go in blue bins are paper, cardboard, plastic bottles, plastic containers, cans and cartons.

He said: “We know that climate change is an important issue to people across Perth and Kinross so we hope this reminder will help people play their part in tackling such an important issue.

“No-one is perfect and a small amount of contamination in our blue bins is to be expected but if we work together we can make a real difference to the environment and the cost to the council.

“Contamination harms the environment, costs money and ruins the good work done by those who recycle properly.”

Around 23,000 householders serviced by Friarton and Blairgowrie recycling depots have received an information postcard encouraging them to ‘Stick to the Six’.

Further action is being planned for later in the year once Covid restrictions have eased, including what has been described as a “doorstep communication campaign”.

A dedicated webpage has also been set up at www.pkc.gov.uk/ sticktothesix.

A full list of what can be recycled can be viewed on the PKC website.