Which? says recyclables still being dumped

There is rising concern about recyclables after the Which? Consumer group released a detailed report that claims 230,000 extra tons of contaminated recycling was placed in landfills last year instead of being processed.

A contaminated recyclable is an item that is tainted such as dirty nappies, food, or other similar items.

Which? claims that the cost of landfill dumping per ton is £40, costing resident tax payers over £12 million each year.

According to Which? if a stronger effort was made to educate residents on how to provide correctly sorted materials to the recycling pickup, as well as an effort by the government to sort contaminated recyclables, tax payers would save money each year.

The LGA environment board claims that while the figures may be accurately recorded Which? is not accurately reporting the situation to taxpayers.

According to the LGA chairman, Paul Bettison, the local council pays the landfill costs and residents would only save approximately 1p per week.

Throughout England most councils reject about approximately 5% of weekly recyclables with a few rejecting closer to 10% and highly populated council areas such as Hertsmere and Manchester rejecting 22% and 16% respectively.

Editor Jess Ross of the Which? online website say the largest rejections occur in areas with a co-mingled system, where councils collect recyclables together in one trash bag, versus kerbside collections in sorted tins.

Ross calls for one uniform system and greater education for residents from their local council about how to properly sort and collect items that are meant to be left out for collection by recycling vehicles

The LGA claims that currently residents get it correct about 95% about the time and that efforts to further sort collections before they are shipped to the landfills would have an insignificant impact on the amount of recyclables sent to landfills.