South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse District Councils have launched a new campaign asking people to check before they chuck items in their recycling bins.
An estimated 3,340 tonnes – the equivalent of just over 200 double decker buses – of items that residents put in their recycling bins during 2022/23 were not actually recyclable – that’s 11 per cent of all the contents of our green bins for the whole year!
It can be very difficult to remove non-recyclable items out of the large loads of recycling in our collection trucks or at the recycling facility; and if it’s food waste or other messy items then it could result in whole truckloads of recycling having to be rejected.
We all need an occasional reminder to ensure we get it right so, this autumn, South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse District Councils will be placing stickers on all green household recycling bins to encourage people to ‘Check it before you chuck it’. The sticker features a QR code for people to scan to help them check, along with a reminder that all items in the green bin should be clean, dry and loose.
Even if the label says that something can be recycled, you should still check to make sure – recycling labels on packaging are often incorrect and we may not be able to recycle that item locally. By ensuring you only put the correct items in your recycling bin, you will play your part in helping to keep us among the top recyclers in the country!
To find out which bin an item should go in, please ‘Check it before you chuck it’ at southandvale.gov.uk/checkit
