Wrong items in your recycling bin

If you put items in that cannot be sorted by the recycling facility, it can be rejected or cause problems.

Recycling can be rejected or cause damage if it contains:

• wet or dirty recycling
• incorrect items

What happens if you put the wrong items in your recycling bin

If you put items that cannot be recycled in your recycling bin, it:

• may not be emptied
• can result in entire vehicle loads being rejected, meaning valuable resources go to waste
• causes problems and damage at the sorting facility by clogging up machines with food or soft plastics
• creates a loss of trust in recycling collections if recycling is seen being thrown away with rubbish because it is contaminated
• leads to extra disposal costs which should be spent on essential services

Items that cannot be recycled

There are some common items we find in recycling bins that cannot be recycled and can cause issues:

• nappies: these are made up of a mixture of non-recyclable materials and dirty nappies can contaminate clean recycling such as paper and card
• textiles and soft plastics (including bin bags): these can get wrapped around machinery
• dirty food containers or drinks bottles: although they can be recycled, if they still contain food or liquid this will spoil the other items in the bin
• wet paper and cardboard: once paper or card is wet it loses its quality, making it unsuitable for recycling

What to do if your bin has a tag on it

Our recycling crew check your bin before collecting it and if there's something in there that shouldn't be, it will not be collected and they will leave a tag attached to it.

The tag has a list of common items and will help you find out what was in the bin that should not be.

Once you have removed the incorrect items and tag, it can then be placed out for collection on your next recycling collection day.

If you cannot remove the items or you have too much recycling to fit in your bin, you will need to take your recycling to a recycling centre. We will not collect items left next to or on top of your bin.