Daily Telegraph: "Up to a fifth of recycling is 'contaminated'"

Link to Daily Telegraph

"The Department for the Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) admit that the amount of 'contaminated' rubbish has gone up by around 40 per cent in the last five years.

"The latest figures from the 'Waste Data Flow' show the amount of recycling sent to landfill or incinerators went up almost 50,000 tons between 2007/08 and 2011/12 to 180,000 tonnes."

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Link to web site

Letsrecycle:
"Wandsworth in recycling contamination clampdown"

"Wandsworth council is calling on its residents to be more vigilant when recycling after finding that 17% of materials put out for collection are contaminants.

"And the council said that if the problem continues some areas could have their recycling bins removed as a result.

"... Shaun Morley, head of waste management at Wandsworth, told letsrecycle.com:

“We are not really sure why the contamination is high. As you know it is a new materials recycling facility (MRF) and the regime for sampling is fairly stringent. It is possibly more stringent than some of the other MRFs around the country. As it is new maybe they are being more careful and more selective about the waste."

"Mr Morley added that one reason for the contamination could be because residents living in high-rise buildings have their recycling collected in a communal bin meaning it is difficult to stop people putting bags of residual waste in them. The level of contamination for these bins is even higher than 17%, at almost 25%."