UNENVIRONMENTALLY-FRIENDLY householders are costing taxpayers dear.
Potentially recyclable goods are being thoughtlessly thrown away at county run recycling centres leading to materials like glass, plastics and paper ending up in landfill.
Some residents are making the effort to go to recycling centres only to then not bother to sort sort their different materials properly meaning it cannot be recycled effectively – costing Warwickshire County Council £100 per tonne to dispose of.
Last year over 256,000 tonnes of household waste was produced in Warwickshire, but only just over a quarter of all waste was recycled – a rise of less than one per cent on the previous year.
Kerry Moore, county waste strategy manager, said: “The council only has a certain budget for waste management and the money we often have to spend on safe disposal of public waste could be spent more effectively elsewhere.
“We receive a small income when we recycle certain items, for example metal cans, but if we can’t recycle them, we miss out on that money.
“We try to make the bins easy to use and easy to know where to put each type of recyclable material but it seems some people ignore this.
“We’re trying to encourage more people to recycle and if they can’t get to the appropriate place to throw it away, we advise them to compost their waste. Not only will it save us both time and money but they also can use the compost for their own gardens.”
And Warwick District Council is also having problems with people not disposing of their waste properly in modern recycle bins in the area’s parks and gardens.
They have separate compartments for different types of waste- glass, plastics, paper and non-recyclables – but many people are simply shoving their waste into any compartment.
