For many years, recycling in the UK has been notoriously confusing. While almost nine in 10 (89 per cent) of UK citizens report that they recycle, according to The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), 81 per cent are putting the wrong things in their recycling bins. Only nine per cent feel “very confident” about what can and can’t be recycled.
While the Government has recently implemented simpler recycling rules across England, there is still a lot of uncertainty about exactly what goes in the green (or blue, or brown) bins. And that matters – but not just for the sake of the planet.
“It costs us to sort through and remove non-recyclable materials”, explains North London Waste Authority’s recycling manager, Toye Ogunleye. And that money they’re spending comes directly from us, the taxpayer, he says.
“We spent over £3.5 million just on contaminated waste last year,” he says. That’s not only the cost of sorting, transport, and so on, but also money lost from material that could have been recycled but had to be disposed of because it was contaminated.
Put another way, recycling badly is part of the reason behind your increasing council tax bill.
