Are you putting the right thing in the right bin?

In a recent spot check of blue recycling bins, of which 17366 are collected every week, teams found that nearly half were contaminated with a range of products including takeaway boxes, Tetra packs and tubes of crisps.

In April, 100 bins were looked at with 41 having found to be contaminated in the West Marsh and 36 in Humberston. Teams wrote to these residents informing them of what item was incorrect, where it should go and enclosed a copy of the Right Thing, Right Bin leaflet.

Revisiting the same bins earlier this week, a number were found to have contaminated their bins again with some putting a new contaminate in compared to the first time.

In West Marsh, 15 bins continued to contaminate with 5 residents putting the same item in, 2 putting a new one plus the original and 8 putting a different wrong item in.

In Humberston, 11 bins continued to contaminate with 4 putting the same item in; 2 the same plus a new item and 5 a completely new item in.

Items that were repeatedly found to be in the blue bin when they shouldn’t be were:

• Takeaway packaging (saturated with grease)
• Tetra Pak cartons (mix of materials)
• Pringles Tubes (mix of materials)
• Kitchen roll/tissue
• Plastic bags
• Plastic (especially on mixed material packaging where it hasn’t been removed)

Councillor Henry Hudson, Portfolio Holder for Environment and Net Zero, said: “I’m grateful to everyone who uses their recycling bins and makes the effort to recycle as much as they can.

“More and more of us are recycling and it really helps when people put the right things in the right bin.

“A small number of households are putting the wrong items in the recycling bins. This contaminates the whole load and can mean the materials are rejected by the reprocessing plants.

“If you put the wrong things in your bin, we won’t empty it. That could mean you have to wait another month for us to empty it.

“We’ve seen a fall recently in the prices offered for paper and card by recycling plants. This often means there is a surplus in the market and they are more likely to reject contaminated loads.”

To make sure you’re putting the right thing in the right bin, check out the website here.