How to avoid contaminated recycling

Recycling has been a hot topic for many years with more and more people making conscious efforts to reduce, reuse and recycle. Despite our noble intentions, many of us are putting our efforts to waste by not recycling correctly. In this article we will define what contaminated recycling is and provide guidance on how residents can avoid it.

What does it mean when recycling is contaminated?

According to WRAP, 84% of households in the UK are putting one or more contaminated items into recycling. The top contaminants include drinking glasses (33%), foil pouches (29%), toothpaste tubes (26%) and plastic film lids (24%).

Recycling becomes contaminated when:

Recycling cardboard that is coated in plastic e.g. many frozen food containers

Items are put in the wrong recycling bin e.g. putting paper in the plastic bin

Items are not cleaned properly e.g. food waste residue left on containers

Plastic bags put in the hard plastic waste bins – they have their own type of recycling

Brightly coloured paper is recycled with normal paper waste – they’re often not recyclable due to dyes

Not separating different materials on the same item e.g. plastic caps on glass bottles

Recycling plastics that can’t be recycled

What happens when recycling is contaminated?

When so many items are contaminated, recycling ends up in landfills, as the cost of going through and separating everything becomes too high. Redcar and Cleveland council stated that it’s costing them £100 a tonne more to process contaminated recycling.

Health and safety becomes a concern for recycling workers as they could be exposed to dangerous substances such as hazardous waste and living organisms.

Machinery can also become easily blocked when materials are not separated correctly. For example, plastic bags are notorious for wrapping around the shafts and axles of sorting machines, resulting in costly repairs and replacements.

How you can avoid contaminating your recycling

A little extra preparation goes a long way. Make sure you read the labels on containers to know exactly what bin they should be going into. This may be a pain to begin with but after time you’ll intuitively know what should be going where.

Many councils have single stream recycling, meaning the responsibility of separation is not on the household. For those of us who do separate at home, be sure to clearly label each recycling bin so everyone is using them correctly.

Ensure you’re cleaning your containers, lids, bottles and cans. Items that often end up contaminated are perfume bottles, toothpaste tubes and drink bottles. Not only is this bad for recycling, residue can also encourage flies, wasps and other pests. Not hygienic and certainly not good for recycling workers.

Finally, ensure that you’re communicating with your friends, family and neighbours on the importance of recycling properly. You can also ask your block manager or council for more communication to residents on the importance of recycling well. For example, you could request an installation of metroSTOR bins that are clearly labelled, secure and without unacceptable visual impact or fire risk, creating a facility where users can feel safe.

We hope this information inspires you to recycle better and create a better world for all of us.