East Staffordshire Borough Council is asking residents to ensure they are familiar with the materials that can be recycled in their blue bin as a small number continue to contaminate their bins.
In recent months, East Staffordshire Borough Council has seen an increase in contamination (incorrect items) being placed into the blue wheeled bins resulting in more materials being rejected at the Materials Recovery Facility where the recycling is sent to for processing.
The Council receives money for its recycled material which helps pay for the delivery of the service and keep down the level of Council Tax. Significant levels of contamination can lead to entire vehicle loads of approximately 18 tonnes being rejected by the processing facility which the Council has to pay for. A single rejected load can cost in the order of £3,000 for disposal.
The majority of our residents are familiar with the recycling scheme and place the correct material for recycling into their blue bin. However the Council is trying to reach out to the small minority that continue to contaminate their bins.
Councillor Ray Faulkner, Deputy Leader for Environment and Housing, stated: “It is vitally important that residents place the correct materials into their blue bins. Our collection crews are trained to look for contamination, so a failure to do so can result in their bin not being collected.
“The collection crew will help in identifying the reason for non-collection by leaving a contamination sticker on the recycling bin. We then ask our residents to remove the contamination before the wheeled bin gets emptied on the next scheduled collection day.”
The Council will be promoting a social media campaign in the coming weeks to help reinforce this message. In addition, our website has recently been updated to try and help residents recycle the right things.
Particular items that should not be placed into the blue bin include nappies, food waste, clothes and other textiles, bubble wrap and polystyrene. Also black bin liners should not be being used in the blue bin, even if they contain recycling materials, as the contents cannot be easily identified. The recycling material should be placed loose in the bin, preferably after washing and squashing the items to help maximise capacity.
If any resident is unsure about which materials you can recycle through your blue bin, they can visit the bins, rubbish and recycling section of our website and go to ‘what goes into what bin’ link for more information.