Recycle right

People are being urged to ‘recycle right’ after Rochdale Borough Council incurred financial penalties as a result of people putting plastic bags in their blue and green bins

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People are being urged to ‘recycle right’ after Rochdale Borough Council incurred financial penalties as a result of people putting plastic bags in their blue and green bins.

Every time a lorry load of recycling is rejected at the processing plant because it contains the wrong materials, it costs the council £1,000 in charges from the Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority. And with one to two loads from our borough currently being rejected each day, the costs are mounting up.

The Council is now reminding residents that bottles are the only plastics which can be recycled in the mixed recycling bin, not plastic bags, or plastic toys or any other plastic container including plastic food containers.

Each lorry load contains the waste of around 1,000 properties and it only takes five per cent of the load to contain the wrong materials for the whole load to be rejected – that means it only takes 50 households getting it wrong for the recycling of 1,000 properties to be rejected.

Councillor Jacquie Beswick, Cabinet member for Environmental Services at Rochdale Borough Council, said: “It’s critical that people recycle right because it costs us a lot as a local authority when people get it wrong and that’s money which could be spent on other services to residents.

“Plastic bags need to go in the dark green refuse bin and it’s even better if people can reuse bags so they don’t have to be thrown away. We’ve also seen examples of people putting all sorts of wacky things in the bin, like old toys, coat hangers, microwaves, garden hosepipes and furniture. The only plastics which can go in the blue lidded light green bin are plastic bottles and kitchen or bathroom product containers with their lids removed.”

The only other Items that can be placed in the blue and green mixed recycling bin are glass bottles, used cans, aerosols and clean tin foil and foil food trays.

Large items, including old electrical items, should be taken to the local household waste recycling centre at Chichester Street in Rochdale or Spring Vale in Middleton.

Find out more about how to reuse and recycle at www.recyclerforgreatermanchester.com

To find out more about recycling in your local area, including how to order a new bin and when your bin collection day is, please visit: www.rochdale.gov.uk/recycling