Babergh councillors debate bin fines for residents

Suggestions are that residents could be given football-inspired yellow and red cards as warnings before being fined around 80 for abusing their blue recycling bins.

Football-style warning stickers are being considered to correct residents' recycling behaviour before resorting to fines

Babergh district council has been forced to landfill about 1,000 tonnes of material from residents' recycling bins in the last year because it was contaminated, officers said.

Although the council has one of the best recycling rates in the country for materials other than green waste, councillors have been warned that up to 15% of material being placed in recycling bins is not recoverable – costing the district 33,000 in landfill fees.

Babergh is now among a growing number of English local authorities to consider forceful measures to get householders recycling correctly.

A spokesman for the district told letsrecycle.com: “The council is today looking at options for reducing the amount of contamination in the recycling bin. There is a possibility of yellow and red stickers warning residents of their mistake. This could ultimately lead to a fixed penalty.”

The council is using powers taken from the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005 to enforce the penalty system. The penalty for contaminating recycling bins could be as high as 100, although council officers have suggested 80.

Campaign
Recyclables collected in Babergh – including paper, cans and plastic bottles – are sent to the Masons materials recycling facility near Ipswich, which is run by Viridor. Councils across Suffolk have already been running a campaign to call for residents to keep plastic bags out of their recycling bins (see letsrecycle.com story).

But council officers in Babergh have said that black bin liners form up to 4% of the contents of residents' recycling collections. Other offenders contaminating recycling bins include nappies, food waste, soiled paper and glass.

The council spokesman said: “Although we are third for dry recyclables in the country it is clear we can do better. It is the behaviour of a minority that needs to be changed and that is what this scheme is about – it is basically to change behaviour.”

Following today's meeting of the overview and scrutiny committee, a full council meeting will be called to look at the various options open to the council. The new enforcement system could be up and running from April 2006.