Council analyses households' black bin contents

Somerset Council said it wants to encourage people to recycle more, as recycling rates are plateauing nationally

A council has been analysing the contents of households' black bin bags to see how much of what was thrown out could have been recycled.

Somerset Council said it wants to help people to recycle more, as recycling rates have been plateauing nationally.

It said it would use the results of its analysis to inform campaigns designed to improve domestic recycling rates.

Waste analysis expert Phil Wells said the sorters had found some "unusual stuff" while sifting people's rubbish.

"We have found tools and unused, boxed appliances," he said.

"I think today, someone has decided to give up camping because there are tents and sleeping bags just thrown away."

He said the bags, collected from the Castle Cary area in the past two weeks, had mainly been filled with food waste.

"It is food that has been bought and either partially eaten or not at all," Mr Wells said.

"Sometimes you get houses with a lot of dogs and you can imagine where that all ends up."

Somerset District Councillor Sarah Dyke said: "We have made some really significant changes to the way we recycle in Somerset over the last few years.

"We have been able to collect more recycling from the curb, 350,000 recycling collections are made every year."

One of the ways in which the council tried to encourage people to recycle more was to make black bin collections less frequent.

"Initially, there was some apprehension from residents about moving from bi-weekly collections to collections every three weeks," Ms Dyke said.

"But actually, we are now seeing our bins 20% less full than they were previously.

"Obviously, more people are recycling more."

The recycling rate has risen to 56% in Somerset, which lies above the national average of 48%.