Council’s brown recycling bins advice after collecting unusual items
East Riding of Yorkshire Council is offering tips covering the use of its brown recycling bins after its operatives found a number of unusual items during collections.
The recycling teams discovered paddling pools; hosepipes; outdoor toys including footballs; solar lights; fake plants and fake Christmas trees; artificial grass; plant pots; wrappers and food still in packaging; electrical items; textiles and clothing and plastic bags in the brown bins – items that should not be in the brown bins.
People should use brown bins to recycle all cooked and uncooked food, out-of-date food, peelings, plate scrapings, bones, meat, bread, eggshells, teabags, small amounts of sauces, as well as garden waste including grass cuttings, hedge trimmings, small branches, leaves, flowers and weeds.
A council spokesperson said: “East Riding residents continue to do a fantastic job of recycling their food and garden waste in their brown bins.
“But some unusual items have been discovered among the mouldy bread and grass cuttings collected in brown bins for the local composting facility.
“These items should be taken to household waste recycling sites. Plastic bags and plastic food packaging should go in green bins.
“This spring, we rolled out the first weekly collections of brown bins to two-thirds of the East Riding.
“Since then, thanks to local residents, more tonnes of food and gardens waste have been collected than ever before.
“But we have also seen an increase in food wrappers, packaging and plastic bags found in the bins – and these are a challenge for our recycling plant to remove.
Councillor Paul West, the council’s cabinet member for environment and transport, said: “We have found some items in brown bins that really shouldn’t have been put inside.
“They are for food and garden waste only.
“Please help use to keep all types of contamination out of our bins and help the East Riding remain one of the very best recycling areas in the country.”
Residents are also asked to only use the council’s kitchen caddy liners to recycle their food waste.
Rolls of kitchen caddy liners are available free of charge at all council customer service centres, libraries, leisure centres, household waste recycling centres and adult learning centres.
Visit eastriding.gov.uk/foodwaste for more details.