The council issued a reminder to residents today (November 19) of the material that can be recycled via its pink bag or purple bin commingled collection system.
Materials including glass bottles and jars, food and drinks cans, plastic bottles and tubs, mixed card, paper, cartons and aerosols are collected weekly from the kerbside for recycling by the council via wheeled bins for larger properties and bags for smaller properties and flats.
The material is collected by contractor Veolia, and sent for sorting at Bywaters’ materials recycling facility in East London, under a contract awarded in March 2015 (see letsrecycle.com story).
Contamination
However, the council has claimed that there has been an increase in contamination in recent weeks that has included food waste, nappies, wet paper and tissues, cling film, plastic wrapping and crisp packets, polystyrene packaging, bubble wrap, broken glass or cardboard with food in it.
In response to the spike in contamination the council’s Clean and Green and Highways team is supporting an advertising campaign, launched alongside waste contractor Veolia, to educate residents to recycle more effectively.
Mayor of Tower Hamlets, John Biggs, said: “Recycling rates in the borough are really encouraging and comparable to other London boroughs. But we can always do more. This campaign is aimed at residents who do recycle – we are encouraging them to help us to save much-needed resources by making sure recycling and waste items are not mixed together.”
Cost
Councillor Ayas Miah, cabinet member for environment, said: “The amount of recycling that we collect containing rubbish has increased significantly and this costs more to process.
“We know from our monitoring work in the borough that some of this is because people don’t fully understand what can and can’t be put in the purple bins for recycling. By using our new guide, we can make sure the recycling collected is sorted correctly and save the council money.”
Tower Hamlets achieved a 27.99% recycling rate in 2013/14.
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