South Kesteven District Council rejected 3,511 recycling bins in a week for containing the wrong items
A tagging scheme has reduced the number of contaminated recycling bins being put out for collection by 15%.
South Kesteven District Council brought back a tagging scheme last month to crack down on people putting the wrong items in their silver bins, which are now used to recycle plastic, tin and glass.
It had previously issued advisory tags for people misusing the purple-lidded bins, which were introduced in February for people to recycle paper and cardboard.
The council spent £5,500 on 60,000 tags for its latest campaign, which it is running across the district in Stamford, Grantham, Bourne and the Deepings.
Last week alone, 3,511 advisory tags were issued for bins containing the wrong items and 4,677 bins were tagged and rejected across the district. The most common mistake is people using their silver bin for soft plastics, paper and cardboard.
A spokesperson for SKDC said: “During the latest recycling week 65,980 bins were correctly presented which is a huge success and we thank residents for getting on board to put the right thing in the right bin.
“Thanks to this co-operation we have seen a marked improvement in the quality of the silver bin contents with contamination levels down from 30% to 15%.
“This means just 7% of all bins were rejected last week, with advisory information issued for a further 5.8%.
“Paper, card and soft plastics including bin bags, plastic carrier bags, clingfilm and crisp packets are the most common items still incorrectly left in the silver bin and we will continue to work with and support householders to iron out any remaining issues.”
In some instances the bin collectors have looked through the bins alongside residents to remove contaminating items and allow the bins to be emptied - an initiative the council said was well received.
Has your bin been tagged? Share your thoughts on the initiative in the comments below.
