Contaminated recycling bins remain a problem for waste firms

Ever wonder where your recycling items go? Or to what uses the plastic bottles, the cardboard boxes and the newspapers you put in your green bin are put to?

This week Green Aware Sligo will fill in those gaps for you, as well as remind you of what items can and can’t be recycled.

There are plenty of things that end up in our recycling bins which can’t be recycled and need to be re-sorted by teams of people at centres around the country.

The Barna recycling facility just outside of Galway city is where most of this region’s recycling waste is sorted prior to export. At present, most paper, plastic and metals are shipped across to the UK, Holland and Spain, Indonesia and Thailand. China has recently announced that it won’t accept this waste any more, and further pressures on this sector are expected in the months ahead.

Not all of the items in the green bin will find a use in the future - we, as consumers, buy far too much food produce in plastic packaging, which may or may not be recyclable.

Currently, rigid plastics, cardboard, newspapers, magazines, beverage cans and tins are among the many items that can be recycled – the full list is on the www.sligococo.ie/greenaware website. The rule of thumb is that these items need to be clean, dry and loose, so ensure that you’ve rinsed the above to remove any food waste, and let them dry before you flatten them and place them into the recycling bin.

According to Barna, one of the key problems they encounter is contaminated recycling – so some people are ignoring the message to ensure their recyclable items are cleaned properly beforehand. If, for example, you have a pizza box which has food contamination, this item cannot go in to your recycling bin, instead it must go to landfill.

Other items that shouldn’t make it into your recycling bin include styrofoam, batteries, wet paper, tin foil or tissue paper. However, you can bring certain items like styrofoam and batteries to one of the civic amenity sites where they can accept them. Again, you’ ll find guidance on this on the website.

So to a few things we could all do easily: When shopping, don’t assume that your plastics can or will all be recycled. If you can, don’t buy your vegetables in the plastic bags provided by the supermarket, these cannot be recycled. Instead keep them loose in your basket. Also, don’t buy coffee and tea in a take away cup, unless it’s marked as compostable. And above all, ensure that your recycling bin contains only items that are recyclable.