County Council launches awareness campaign aimed at helping residents to reduce recycling contamination

Leicestershire County Council have recently launched an awareness campaign to encourage people to recycle correctly. The campaign ‘Don’t Let Your Recycling Go To Waste’ aims to help residents to correctly recycle and reduce the amount of contamination in Leicestershire’s recycling bins.

The truth about recycling and contamination

Each year, Leicestershire deal with about 305,000 tonnes of waste a year and 55,000 tonnes of that waste is recyclable material. Leicestershire have pledged to recycle 50% of all household waste by 2020 and within this recyclable material, there is a lot of contamination.*

A number of incorrect items are being put into recycling bins, which can prevent good material from being recycled. The county council is now working with district and borough councils to improve Leicestershire’s recycling output, and, with the help of clear information and advice.

Find out about your local recycling and waste services

Your local Materials Recycling Facility (MRF) can only accept suitable for recycling, so any incorrect items have to be removed, often by hand. This can be time-consuming and even dangerous for the workers and ultimately the cost is passed onto taxpayer. Dirty items can spoil other materials and prevent them from being recycled.

It’s worth getting in contact with your local council to find out about local recycling and waste services. You can do this easily on the GOV.UK website by following this link:

https://www.gov.uk/recycling-collections

‘Lesswaste’ handy tips on recycling

If you are based in Leicestershire, you can find more information at www.lesswaste.org.uk.This website explains how you can reduce waste, reuse materials, recycle as well as how you can get involved with volunteering opportunities.

Tips to remember when recycling:

Recycling should be clean and dry. Empty food and drink containers, then rinse and leave to drain before recycling.
Flatten cardboard and cartons and remember to keep it dry.
Put disposable nappies in general waste bins. Disposable nappies are not currently collected for recycling.
Clothes and other textiles should not be put into recycling bins. Local councils may provide separate collections. Alternatively, items can be taken to a charity shop.

Items that are accepted for recycling can be found here: http://www.lesswaste.org.uk/items-accepted-for-recycling-at-casepak/

How is your Council helping to combat waste in the UK? We’d love to hear about any incentives or tips over on Twitter @bhibcouncils.

*https://www.leicestershire.gov.uk/news/dont-let-your-recycling-go-to-waste

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