Million tonnes of our ‘recycled waste’ rejected

A RECORD amount of rubbish residents thought would be recycled is being dumped by councils in landfill or being incinerated.

In the past two years, more than a million tonnes of waste put out by households for recycling ended up being rejected, adding to the country’s waste mountain.

Every week more than 12,000 tonnes of rubbish originally sorted into recycling containers is being treated as ordinary waste and then buried or burnt.

This accounts for six per cent of all waste put out for recycling. Eight years ago the proportion rejected was two per cent.

Issues arise when people put their nonrecyclable items into recycling containers, or when recyclable items are “contaminated”, such as a cardboard pizza box with food remains still stuck to the insides.

Some problem items can be filtered out and put in with the normal waste. But in the worst-case scenario the whole contents of a garbage truck could be turned away at the gates of a reprocessing plant.

Critics claim that complex recycling systems with a myriad of bins, as well as each local council having its own methods, have left residents confused about which items go where – creating the “green fatigue” syndrome.

The Recycling Association’s Simon Ellin said: “We have to improve the quality of material sent to recyclers. Every part of the chain needs to play its part. Retailers and manufacturers need to design products that are easy to recycle, and householders need to put their recycling in the right bin.

“Councils need to design collections so people know what goes in the bin, and recyclers and waste management companies need to ensure recycled material is kept separate and sorted effectively.

“Government plans mean all of this should happen in the next few years. Every household should end up with the same bins, with packaging telling them which bin to put it in, making recycling easier.”

David Renard, of the Local Government Association, said: “Households have made a real shift over the past decade to ensure they are recycling as much as possible.

“We ask residents to ensure their recycling is clean, dry and empty – to avoid any contaminated waste getting in the system.”