The month-long initiative unveiled last week (August 6), entitled ‘Keep it clean', involves 30 posters being placed throughout the city to explain how clean recyclables are sold by the council for a profit, while contaminated material has to be landfilled at a cost of £60 per tonne.
Kirsty Martin, senior community engagement officer at the city council, said: “Most residents fully support our recycling efforts by lacing on the correct materials in recycling bins. However, we have to reject some loads of otherwise good quality materials because they are so contaminated with non-recyclable waste. It means the whole load has to be landfilled, damaging the environment and adding disposal costs.”
The posters are being placed in pedestrian areas of the city and outline what material can and cannot go into residents' green wheeled bins for recycling.
Material is sorted at the council-run, 75,000 tonnes-a-year capacity materials recycling facility at Fengate in the east of the city for sorting, while residual waste is sent to Dogsthorpe landfill for disposal.
Fund
In addition to the poster campaign, the council revealed that it had been awarded £54,000 from the government's Migrant Impact Fund (MIF) to help it tackle the issue of recycling contamination and non-participation among migrant workers in particular. The £70 million MIF was established in March this year to help councils in managing the local pressures of migration.
The council intends to use the money, which will be bolstered by a further £24,000 in 2010/11, to employ either two full-time or four part-time bilingual communication engagement officers.
The officers will use a door-knocking campaign to explain the benefits of the council's recycling service and how it operates with a particular focus on the large migrant workers populations in the Millfield and New England areas of the city.
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