Residents praised as recycling contamination cut

Councillor Bhupinder Gakhal said he was "delighted" residents had listened to their campaign

Residents in Wolverhampton have been thanked for making changes to how they recycle rubbish after a fall in the number of bins being rejected for having the wrong waste in them.

The city council's "check before you chuck" campaign started in January after bin contamination rates reached 24% in December.

Placing incorrect items in household bins meant materials could not be properly recycled and have to be disposed of separately, costing more money and also losing the environmental benefits, the council said.

But last week’s average revealed the number of contaminated bins fell to fewer than 4% with no waste loads rejected at the recycling facility, the authority added.

Nappies and food waste were among the items the council said should not be put in residents' recycling bins.

'Extremely pleased'

In April, independent councillor Celia Hibbert demanded an immediate pause to the changes because of the number of uncollected recycling bins left in streets.

She said more than 23,000 bins were left uncollected in three collection rounds.

At the time, the council said its campaign was already making progress with a fall in contamination rates from 24% in December to 16% in February.

In the scheme, tags were put on bins with invalid items and asked residents to remove anything that should not be there, with the waste picked up at a future date.

The contamination and rejection of waste cost taxpayers more than £185,000 a year to deal with, the authority said.

The education and awareness campaign will continue over the coming weeks and the council said it had also taken on feedback about ways to make recycling clearer.

Councillor Bhupinder Gakhal said: “A huge thank you to all of our residents who are supporting our ‘check before you chuck’ campaign, we are extremely pleased with the response and delighted that people have seen what we’re trying to achieve."