‘Make all recycling bins the same colour’

RECYCLING bins should all be the same colour to make the system less confusing, experts have said.

Residents often have a refuse bin and a recycling bin, but the colour of the latter varies depending on the local council, with some green, some blue, and others brown. This is one of a host of issues making it hard for well-meaning residents to do their bit and recycle their waste properly, according to the Royal Society of Chemistry. Elisabeth Ratcliffe, the sustainability spokesman for the RSC, said: “We think there needs to be a strategy for recycling waste that is consistent across the country.

“Some of the things we have identified that would help are standardising easy collection of plastic waste from the kerbside, so everyone’s bins are really easy to use and people do not have to travel to recycle their waste.”

One easy example of this, she said, would be to make everyone’s bins the same colour and apply a nationwide set of rules. Making this change would ensure more items end up at the right plant and allow more waste to be properly recycled.

A survey from the RSC found that three quarters of people want to recycle, but around a half say they struggle because of confusing guidelines.

Professor Michael Shaver from the University of Manchester’s Green Materials Laboratory, said one of the biggest issues facing recycling is that often a specialist plant incorrectly receives plastics that it cannot recycle. ““You want to retain the plastic in its highest value condition … but this only happens if you get really good sorting,” he said.