Agenda item

Mrs Sallie Butt, the Environment & Waste Technician from Leicestershire County Council provided a presentation on what are recyclable and non-recyclable items.

·         Currently some seven-district councils use Case Pak in Leicestershire. Leicestershire County Council is due to roll out a recycling campaign.

·         Waste Initiatives carry out talks on recycling in schools and to community groups. Articles are placed in magazines such as Letterbox.

The Chair extended an appreciation of thanks to Sallie Butt at the close of the presentation.

Recycling Dos and Don’ts.

The Dos:

·         Rinse and drain plastic bottles.

·         Keep plastic in its original state. Squash it and place it in the wheelie Bin.

·         Place plastic tubs pots in the recycling.

·         Tetra pack cartons are recyclable. Flatten them if you wish. Those with the lids left on are more collectable.

·         Cardboard can be flattened. Empty everything out of them.

·         Cleaned aluminium foil is acceptable and can be squashed flat.

·         Food tins must be rinsed and drained.

·         Drinks cans are acceptable.

·         Some types of clean tin foil.

·         Completely empty aerosol cans are ok to recycle.

·         Rinsed glass bottles and glass jars with their lids on are acceptable. Rinse the items and place the lids back on.

·         Ensure all packaging is empty.

·         Brown and green loose bags previously used for recycling can be placed in the bin.

·         With regard to rolls of old green and brown surplus recycling bags, residents may contact Customer Services. They will advise residents that they can either bring them into the Customer Services Centre or arrange with the Depot (Tip) for the bags to be collected.

·         Residents were reminded that they could use their small black bins for composting.

·         The Don’ts

·         Do not place any black plastic in the recycling waste. Infrared rays used to identify plastic rubbish cannot pick up its existence.

·         Do not place broken glass in the recycle bin. Place it in a bottle bank for recycling.

·         No flat glass such as mirrors.

·         Do not add textiles, as they tangle up in the equipment. Donate them, even the rags to charity.

·         No used nappies. Place them in the general waste.

·         No makeup in plastic tubes. These are difficult to clean.

·         No hard plastic such as hangers whole or broken, wash baskets, washing up bowls or plastic storage containers.

·         No children`s toys.

·         Do not add crisp packets or multi-use crisp bags. Walkers Crisps have set up a recycling process for their crisp packets. Some stores are taking back plastic carrier bags for recycling.

·         No batteries or small electrical items to be placed in bins.

·         No tissues to be placed in bins.

·         No single use plastic drinking cup to be placed in bins.

·         No polystyrene or Styrofoam.

·         No used plastic bags to be placed in bins.

·         No tin foil as used in boxes of tea such as Tetley, PG Tips and Typhoo etc. Scrunched up tin foil turns into a laminate so must not be placed in recycling. The test to see if it is not recyclable is to scrunch it up into a ball to see if it does not spring back open. If it springs back, do not recycle it.

·         No shredded paper as it can become mixed up and separate out creating a mess.

·         No food and drink. Food waste can cause contamination of recyclables. Cross contamination is a bit of an issue on the tipping floor when items are being graded.

·         Do not add bags of items into one plastic bag to recycle. Case Pak finds these causes a recycling problem.

·         On non-emptied bins. It may have visual contamination in it. Waste Officers are trained to spot visual contaminants. A bin hanger is usually placed on the bin if this is the case. Some food packaging might not be biodegradable. Some compostable packaging may be misleading for composting down. If placed in a landfill such items may form methane gas.

·         Too shiny gift wrapping paper is a non-recyclable. Matt wrapping paper may not be recyclable. Read the labelling.

·         Too shiny gift wrapping paper is non-recyclable. Matt wrapping paper may also not be recyclable. Read the labelling.

·         Aerosol cans are fine from the house, such as air freshener/ deodorant/ polish etc. but not if they have contained hazardous substances (i.e. from the garage or shed), such as WD40/ paint/ glue etc.

·         No white plastic cups or disposable coffee cups.

·         No blister packs used for medicines.

·         Plastic tubes are not ok to include even if they have been cleaned out properly (i.e. cut and cleaned).

·         OM PAK labelling is great up to a point. “Widely recycled” means that 75% of Local Authorities will allow the item to be recycled.

·         BBC Radio Leicester hosts a recycling box for receiving crisp packets.