The One Trafford Partnership is stepping up efforts to tackle contamination of blue recycling bins and is placing tags on blue bins if they contain the wrong items.
Residents are being asked to recycle right by removing any wrong items from the blue bin before their next scheduled blue bin day. If a blue bin contains wrong items, the waste collection crews will place a tag on the handle of the bin, and it will not get emptied.
Recyclable paper and card items, such as letters, envelopes, junk mail, magazines and catalogues, cereal boxes, cardboard boxes, card egg boxes and shredded paper can go in the blue bin.
If blue bins containing the wrong items are emptied into a bin lorry, it can spoil the whole load meaning it cannot be recycled. The load will then be treated as general waste.
Cllr Stephen Adshead, Executive Member for Environment, Air Quality and Climate Change, said:
Most people in Trafford recycle but we need everyone to recycle the correct items in the right bin. The number of wrong items we are finding in some paper and card bins is unacceptable.
In the first nine weeks of 2020, we collected 1,805 tonnes of paper and card. But almost 10% could not be recycled because there were wrong items hidden in blue bins. This included items such as extension leads, cakes still in their cardboard boxes, nappies stuffed into cereal boxes, wood, rugs and paper in plastic bags. This costs the taxpayer almost £18k – money which could be used to support other public services.”
The list of what can be recycling in the blue bin has not changed and residents are asked to check the recycling guide back of their collection calendars. Alternatively, residents can download a recycling guide.
Trafford Council has a recycling rate of 57.8% in 2018/19, which is above England’s average household waste recycling rate of 45.1%.
Posted on Wednesday 13th May 2020