Don’t bag up your recycling, leave it loose in your bin.

“Don't bag up your recycling, leave it loose in your bin" – that's the message Stratford-on-Avon District Council would like to remind residents of.

The District Council together with its contractor Biffa* has recently been working to reduce levels of non recyclable material (contamination) in recycling collections and issuing stickers on any problem bins. 

Cllr Chris Saint, Leader of Stratford-on-Avon District Council says: “We have listened to public concerns regarding our recent attempts to improve recycling in the District and whilst we are still committed to reducing contamination we are looking to work with our residents to make sure that they fully understand our recycling scheme.

“One of our biggest problems is that we cannot recycle plastic bags at the current time.  It is important that all materials are placed loose in your blue-lidded bin and not placed in bags, so that the material can be sorted at the recycling plant.

“We are already one of the top ten recycling authorities in the country and if we all work together on this it will continue to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill saving the environment and tax payer's money.

“We really do appreciate the efforts of our residents in separating materials for recycling and it is really important that we maximise the quality of recyclable materials to ensure everything that is sent for recycling is recycled. Depending on the level and type of contamination, there is a risk that a whole vehicle load will be rejected and then sent to landfill, something none of us want.

“Remember, don't bag up your recycling, leave it loose in your blue-lidded bin."

The District Council has listened to residents' concerns and there will be a period of grace between now and the end of September to give residents the opportunity to remind themselves about the recycling scheme.  During this period advice stickers will be used to inform residents about contamination in bins.

What should go into your recycling bin:

• Paper - e.g. Newspapers, magazines, scrap paper, envelopes, catalogues (including Yellow Pages)
• Cardboard - e.g. boxes (broken up to fit in the bin), packaging material and corrugated
• Glass - Bottles and jars
• Tins and Cans - e.g. Food tins, drink cans, biscuit tins
• Plastic Packaging - e.g. bottles, yoghurt pots, margarine / ice cream tubs, fruit punnets, microwave meal trays
• Aluminium foil – pie and cake trays
• Aerosols - Empty
• Cartons - Drinks cartons, soup cartons and tetrapak

All of the recycling collected in the district is taken to a state-of-the-art comingled recycling facility in Ettington operated by Pure Recycling where it is sorted and any contaminated items are removed and sent to produce Energy from Waste. Non-recyclable items make up 5% of all the material that is collected in the district from blue-lidded recycling bins.

More information on this and ideas on ways to reuse items that you no longer need can be found on the District Council's website. 

Top 5 contamination items that cannot be recycled:

• Plastic bags
• Expanded Polystyrene
• Film wrap
• Hard plastic items eg plant pots, coat hangers, toys
• Shoes and textiles

* The Company that owns Biffa bought Verdant in spring 2011.